


To Outrun a Supernova

by amelia



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst and Humor, Character Death, Drama, Explosions, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Dies As Much As Possible, M/M, Original Character(s), Slash, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-09-25
Packaged: 2017-11-13 00:40:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 34,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amelia/pseuds/amelia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Ianto have been settling into a cozy routine at Torchwood--until the Doctor swoops in to recruit Jack's help in shutting down nuclear plants in a distant solar system. They race against time to evacuate the residents and prevent nuclear meltdown. Jack/Ianto, Jack/10, 10/OC. (This work's now complete.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Collision Course

Ianto squinted into the grey morning light as he drove the black Torchwood SUV onto the Plass. Jack was beside him in the passenger seat, and the heater blasted over them both–-warm and cozy. Ianto tried not to smirk. Here they were, together, and it was almost becoming routine. 

Then something appeared in front of him, smack in the middle of the street, and he barely had time to swerve to the left and shove his foot onto the brake. “What the bloody hell!” he shouted as they squealed to a stop.

Jack was already out the door and running, as Ianto peered out the rear view mirror and saw the strange blue box. He watched Jack pound on the Police Box door, and saw people on the Plass walking calmly around them. Ianto took a deep breath, reached over to close Jack’s door, and drove the SUV to the closest space he could safely park it. His heart pounded as he jumped out the door and ran for the Tardis.

He couldn’t lose Jack again–=not now.

\----

The door was unlocked this time. Jack tumbled into the Tardis, his lungs burning. He still heard the SUV brakes squealing, Ianto shouting, and his heart thundering in his ears. He’d made it. He grabbed the railing and looked around–the coral struts, the glowing column at the center, a soft golden glow–like being home again. And there was the Doctor at the console in his pinstripes, watching Jack coolly with his fathomless eyes.

“You should be careful where you park this thing!” Jack said as he caught his breath.

“Yes, well,” said the Doctor, rubbing his neck, “I asked the Tardis to find you. She’s usually good at avoiding collisions.”

“Be grateful Ianto is, too,” said Jack, but the Doctor had already turned around, typing into the console. 

Jack walked up the steps and looked at him. Either he was really in the middle of something, or for some reason wasn’t in the mood for a proper greeting. His eyes looked a bit puffy, his hair mussed and unwashed, and his face was dark with stubble. 

“I take it you haven’t come to refuel.”

“I came for you.” The Doctor peered up from the console, but his thoughts were clearly distracted. Jack didn’t know whether to hang back or rush into his arms. “When is this for you, Jack? After the year?”

Jack nodded, his breath catching in his throat. “That’s absolutely in the past.”

“Good,” the Doctor nodded back. “I need your help.” 

Jack followed his gaze to the monitor, which showed a solar system of red planets. So this was all business, then. “You need someone who can’t die.” Jack said. 

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, well–-"

“Consider it done,” Jack answered, his gaze steady on the Doctor’s face. 

The Doctor’s eyebrow twitched. He hadn’t expected Jack to agree so easily to just anything. 

For some reason, Jack felt a flash of anger–-didn’t he know Jack would do anything for him? The Tardis hummed quietly around them. All the noise from the Plass filtered away, and it was just him and the Doctor, who opened his mouth to speak.

Suddenly, a pounding on the door startled them both. The Doctor pressed a button on the console and the screen lit up to show Ianto’s face, as he pounded at the Tardis doors outside. “You know him?” asked the Doctor.

“Know him?” Jack echoed. “He’s my–-" the Doctor’s eyes were fixed on him, but Jack didn’t censor himself–-“My partner. He was driving the SUV when we almost ran into you.” Jack surprised himself–-he’d never called Ianto anything that intimate, to anyone, not even to Ianto himself. Why was he telling the Doctor?

Yet the Doctor’s face twisted into a little smile. “Didn’t think you’d ever settle for one partner, Jack.” 

Jack shrugged. “My reputation’s ruined then, isn’t it?” He glanced back at the screen, then added, “I waited for you for a hundred years, didn’t I?”

The Doctor again raised his eyebrow in surprise. “Not in the same way, is it?”

“Yes and no,” Jack answered honestly enough, and the Doctor’s eyes met his own again. There was something in there beyond the Doctor’s usual dismissal, a question perhaps, and Jack wanted to lean in closer to him. 

But Ianto pounded the door again, calling his name. “Damn you, Jack!” 

The Doctor’s face was impassive. “You want me to let him in?”

“Yes,” Jack answered. “He deserves better than to have me disappear on him again without a goodbye.”

The Doctor pressed a button, and looked over to the door. Ianto stumbled inside as the door gave way. Quickly, he recovered himself to his full height. He looked around with wide eyes, admiring the Tardis, then his eyes found Jack and the Doctor. “You must be the Doctor, then,” he said.

The Doctor nodded, his voice suddenly light and friendly. “That’s me. Hello.” 

“Jones, Ianto Jones,” Ianto said, walking up the steps. They shook hands awkwardly, and Jack concealed a grin. 

“So, this is the magic box,” Ianto looked around, his eyes wide with admiration. The Doctor glanced over at Jack, one eyebrow raised–-so, you’ve told him. And then Ianto turned back to the Doctor with a tight smile, “And you’re the alien threat we’ve heard so much about.” 

“Well, not so much a threat,” the Doctor said, running a hand over his neck. “Ah, Queen Victoria–-right, there was a werewolf--“

Ianto nodded, “So I’ve heard.” 

Jack laughed. “All right, Ianto, enough. Doctor, what’s going on?”

“Well,” the Doctor said, turning back to his screen. He punched the console again and the solar system reappeared on screen. “I’ve detected increasing thermonuclear levels from a star in Seven/apple/gamma,” he said. His eyes flicked to Ianto. “About seven light years from Earth and 10,000 years in the future. It’s going to cause an interstellar explosion about the size of your galaxy-–in about three weeks in my timeline.”

“So, people in danger, then?” Jack winked.

“This is a job for you, Jack--not Torchwood.”The Doctor glanced back at Ianto. 

“Understood.” Jack answered.

“Sir,” Ianto said, standing at attention. “I’ll leave you to it then?” He took a few steps toward the door, then turned around again, “Jack–-you’re coming back, aren’t you?”

Jack turned to the Doctor. “Let him stay until we know what’s going on.” 

“Your call, Jack,” the Doctor nodded. “But it’s much too dangerous for you to come along, Ianto. I’m sorry.”

Ianto gladly hopped back up the stairs to watch, and the Doctor looked concerned but turned back to the screen without another word, pulling on his brainy specs. “This star is sending out gamma waves and solar flares, driving up the radiation in all the nuclear facilities in the planetary system.” He glanced at Jack. “The nuclear plants will blow before that sun goes supernova.”

“Let me guess--it’s our job to shut them down.”

“And then evacuate as many species as we can,” the Doctor added. 

“How many nuclear plants are there?”

“Just five, on two planets. If we fail, it’s a mass extinction. These species haven’t settled anywhere outside this system for another 3,000 years.”

“Hold on," Ianto asked. “But if you’re evacuating them now, or they die, isn't it a paradox to say they live there for 3,000 more years?" 

Jack cut him off with a shake of the head. "Don't go there."

The Doctor turned around. “I issued a call for evacuation across the solar system, but some governments are more approachable than others.”

“Have you called on the Shadow Proclamation?” Jack asked. 

“Out of their jurisdiction,” the Doctor interrupted. “It’s death by natural causes, not a police action.”

Jack nodded. “Right.” 

The Doctor looked down at the console, flicking switches, then looked at Ianto, and back at Jack.

“Ianto,” Jack said, putting a hand on his shoulder and pointing, “Go down that hall, you’ll find the kitchen on the first door on the right. Would you make us a strong cup of tea?”

Ianto nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“The Doctor takes three sugars, and a teaspoon of milk,” Jack explained.

“Thank you,” the Doctor told him, and Ianto turned to wander the halls of the Tardis.

The Doctor leaned on the console and looked at Jack, whose eyes followed Ianto’s back. “Jack,” he said softly.

“What else?” Jack said, turning back to the Doctor with a deep breath. "What's this paradox?"

“Ianto had a point,” the Doctor said, grimly. “Something shifted the time line. Namely, the Time War. Radiation rippled out over the universe, making different planets form, different suns explode. It changes history."

Jack nodded. “The time war,“ he said softly, “wasn’t all your fault.”

“This star here, in Seven/apple/gamma, would have been stable for 3,000 more years. Its inhabitants by then would have gotten the hell off those rocks,” the Doctor leaned over and flicked a switch on the console, then ran a hand through his hair. “Jack, I’m responsible for that. If you want to walk out that door back to Torchwood, I understand.”

Jack shook his head. “You know I’ll help. But you also know, you don’t have to spend all your life trying to make amends.“

The Doctor crossed his arms, and his voice went cold, “Yes, I do.” He looked at Jack. “I’m the only one who can.” 

“Then, you know I’ve got your back.” Jack said, just as firmly. 

The Doctor took a deep, heavy breath. “Thank you,” he muttered. Then he whirled around, typing into the Tardis again, pulling up a closer look at the planets. 

Yellow dots blinked at different spots on the planets. “These are the nuclear plants,” explained the Doctor. “We’ll go in and shut them down. Once we’re in that timeline we have to move fast. We’ll have to cut through security. The staff at each location may help, or make this harder.”

Ianto cleared his throat behind them. “Tea. I've never met a kitchen quite like yours, Doctor.”

"Brilliant!" The Doctor swirled around. “Thank you, Ianto Jones,” he flashed a manic grin. His eyes were big and brown, and Ianto felt his mouth fall open as he saw the Doctor’s face, disarmed, staring into his own. No wonder Jack had fallen for this man, he thought--this all-powerful leader who could still be utterly guileless and beautiful.

He glanced toward the Doctor’s cup. “On the left, three sugars, and a teaspoon of milk, Doctor.” And he glanced toward the right-hand cup. “And Jack, black, 1 teaspoon sugar.”

Jack smirked at him-–and Ianto flushed. Noticing the lack of a table, he set the platter down carefully on the floor and took his own mug. The Doctor took a sip and turned back to the screen. “Right then. We’ll try to fit as many people as we can in the Tardis for evacuation. We’ll bunk them. I may have to jettison the pool again,” he shrugged. “Can’t find my swim trunks anyway.”

“The pool?” Ianto said. 

Jack chuckled. “Pool, library, zoo–“

“Bigger on the inside, I know,” Ianto nodded. “I was thinking-–if you have several species to evacuate, have you identified relocation planets with the correct atmospheric and geographic conditions?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Getting them off world was first priority.” He glanced to Jack. “Torchwood shouldn’t have planetary data as such-–do you?”

Jack glanced at Ianto. “If Ianto could access your database remotely." 

The Doctor’s eyes went wide. “Right.” 

Jack watched the Doctor pull up the Torchwood server and Ianto’s network profile. “How did you? Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

The Doctor grinned. “Network expert, me. You may have the best security for 21st century Earth, but even by your century’s standards, it’s easy work for a hacker.”

Jack shook his head. “I was hardly a computer whiz in the 51st century.” Ianto looked back and forth between Jack and the Doctor with wide eyes. Jack winked at him–-of course, Ianto was probably eating up every little comment to try to piece together Jack’s history. 

But the Doctor had moved on. “Ianto. Start looking in the Azerbane cluster, maybe the Ozarnai galaxies. Look for sparsely populated planets, maybe those with ruins that could be rebuilt to suitable infrastructure. Nowhere too overcrowded. I’ll send you the species lists, planetary atmospheric conditions, habitat needs--everything for a comprehensive relocation effort.”

He reached behind the console monitor and pulled out a flash drive. “This has the access software and algorithm for your password. Reboots every 30 seconds. Like a 21st century RSA key. Keep it on your person at all times.”

Ianto nodded, turning it over in his hands, a bit amazed that the Doctor even had 21st century flash drives just lying around. “Consider it done.”

The Doctor gave Jack a warning look. “Torchwood is not getting permanent access. I’ll give you read-only rights that expire in 48 hours.”

Jack nodded. “So we’ll be back in two days?”

“Two weeks for us-–maybe three. But for you, Ianto Jones, 48 hours.” The Doctor smiled at him. “I’ll bring Jack home to you. Go be brilliant.” 

Ianto nodded. “Happy to help, sir.”

Jack leaned forward to Ianto, who tried to hug him, awkwardly. But Jack grasped his shoulders and brought his lips to Ianto’s in a fierce kiss. His thumbs traced the edges of Ianto’s collarbone, and then he pulled away with his eyes open. He could see the arousal in Ianto’s eyes, but the rest of his body was tense, prim and proper as always. Ianto swallowed hard. “I’m coming back,” Jack reassured him.

“Please,” Ianto said, his voice thick, then turned to walk out the door. 

Jack watched him leave, then turned back to the Doctor–-whom he found was watching him intently. “So,” Jack said. “Seven/Apple/Gamma it is, then.”

The Doctor swallowed and turned back to his screen. “You kissed me like that at the Game Station,” he said, doing his best not to look at Jack.

Jack’s mouth dropped open, “Doctor?”

“I’m bringing you home to him,” the Doctor continued. “Torchwood will have its Captain.”

Jack nodded. “And you? Travelling alone still?”

The Doctor was busy, typing away, bringing up data on the nuclear plants, but he paused a moment. “Yeah.” He flipped switches for the dematerialization sequence, then grinned. “Lift-off!” And he pulled the lever.

As the Tardis trembled and whooshed into the Vortex, Jack imagined Ianto climbing back into the SUV and walking into Torchwood for the morning. He had a brief flash of guilt for leaving him behind-–but he couldn’t abandon the Doctor now. The Doctor grinned manically at him as they both clung to the console, and Jack grinned back, excitement flooding through him. Time for another adventure.


	2. Spinning in the Vortex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quiet chapter before the action begins. Jack and the Doctor have a few things to work out between them. Warning for sexual situations but not very explicit.

“Back in the Vortex!” the Doctor crowed as the Tardis settled down. 

“Not jumping in feet first this time?” Jack asked, surprised they weren’t already rushing out the door to the new planet. 

“Well," the Doctor hesitated, "Before we drop back in my timeline, we should learn the layout of each of the sites–-and you should rest up. Want to take a quick kip first?” He watched Jack with one eyebrow raised. 

Jack scanned the Doctor’s face. It wasn’t like the Doctor to stop for breath, much less plan a mission, but there were the pale cheeks and circles under his eyes. Jack nodded. “You look a little worn around the edges, yourself, Doc.” 

“Let’s go find your room,” the Doctor said, and Jack followed him down a corridor. When he opened a door, Jack stepped inside first. The walls were paneled with an exotic striped wood. The intricately carved bedframe curved out from the wall, and was decked in an embroidered blue duvet. Bookshelves lined the walls, and there was a table covered in electronics components. It wasn’t Jack’s room–-it was the Doctor’s. 

“My mind must have wandered,” the Doctor said, rubbing his neck. “The Tardis changed the rooms around again. Come on, we'll find yours.” 

He turned, but Jack pulled him back. “No. Wait.” Jack had thought the Doctor just slept wherever he ended up--under the Tardis console after a night of tinkering, or in the library, or on a lounger in the pool. In the days they traveled together, Jack often found him sprawled and beautiful on a random surface. Always so skinny and vulnerable. But that never lasted. The Doctor always jumped up, talking a mile-a-minute, larger than life again in record time. 

“Jack,” the Doctor said, leaning on the door frame and watching him. 

Jack ran his hands over the leather and cloth-bound books on the shelves. They were titled in a myriad of languages-–Latin, Galactic Standard, English, French, Gallifreyan. In front of the books, the remaining shelf surfaces were littered with dusty alien artefacts. Jack wondered what they each meant to the Doctor. He wasn’t the type to keep knick-knacks unless they had irreplaceable memories attached. “Your room may be the most important place in the Tardis,” Jack said.

“I don’t think so."

Jack took a deep breath. The room smelled deeply of the Doctor–-like engine grease and burnt fuses, a touch of alien musk, and the whiff of chemical hair gel--the scents Jack could bury himself in. He ran his hand along the bed frame. “We could sleep here instead.”

“Jack,” said the Doctor, shaking his head. “I don’t sleep much.” 

“A little rest can’t hurt.” Jack sat down on the bed, testing the mattress. Very comfortable. The Doctor leaned a shoulder against the wall and stuffed his hands in his pockets, regarding Jack. In truth, he looked exhausted, but Jack knew he’d never admit it, and it was possible he didn’t even realize it himself. “Come on,” Jack coaxed him. “We’re here now.”

The Doctor huffed and walked across the room, looking at one of the star charts hanging on the walls, labelled in Circular Gallifreyan. “I’ve got to plan our mission. This star right here--” he pointed.

“I’ll help you with that later,” Jack walked over to stand behind him. “Torchwood’s disarmed nuclear facilities before. We’ll need to find the schematics, plan our route, study the cooling systems.”

The Doctor turned to him. “Right.” 

“Just chill for a minute,” Jack rested a hand on the Doctor’s arm, and gave him a little smile. “Fulfill a dying man’s wish.”

The Doctor moved away from Jack and sat down the bed, exasperated. “You’re not dying.”

Jack snorted. “From the sound of this, I may die a few times over before we’re done.”

The Doctor didn’t crack a smile, but his brown eyes widened. “I wish there was another way.”

Jack settled beside him, wrapping one arm across his back. “Don’t worry about it. I’m a fixed point, right?”

The Doctor swallowed and looked down at his knees. 

“This is all I’m asking you in exchange,” Jack said, with a smile. Then he teased, “You haven’t even said a proper hello, you know.”

The Doctor glanced over at him again. “Yes, well, with you falling in suddenly–-Well.” He smiled. “Hello.”

Jack reached around to pull the Doctor into a hug, and hold him close for maybe a second too long. “It’s good to see you,” he said, hoarsely. As he pulled away, he saw a slight flush in the Time Lord’s cheeks. Jack shucked off his coat, set it on a chair nearby, and unlaced his boots. Then he reached up to unbutton his shirt, and looked at the Doctor.

The Doctor was watching him, and glanced away as their eyes met, letting out a breath–-“Stay here, then,” he sighed, standing up again and turning around, pulling off his own suit coat. “I know when I’ve lost.”

His lips turned up in a mischevious half-smile, and Jack grinned back. “It’s not a competition.”

The Doctor ran his hand over his neck and chuckled. “Ianto, he’s brilliant, isn’t he? Hardly five minutes on the Tardis and he’s got access to my systems.” 

“Quiet, polite, but nothing gets past him. He’s Torchwood all over.” Jack couldn’t hide the note of pride in his voice. He draped his shirt over his coat, then hesitated a moment before shrugging and pulling off his trousers, too. He was down to boxers and undershirt quickly. 

The Doctor had set his own trainers and shirt by the bed and was standing by a chair. Jack saw him hesitate---was his Time Lord shy? “Doctor,” Jack said, walking over to him. “These too.” He rested a palm on the Doctor’s waist, squeezing the fabric of his suit trousers. “They’ll just get wrinkled.” 

The Doctor shivered at Jack’s touch. “Yeah,” he muttered, and Jack saw his fingers shake as he reached for the button at his waist.

Jack wormed under the duvet and pushed the pillows to the right place. “You have the most amazing bed,” he murmured with a smile, suddenly sleepy and comfortable. 

The Doctor climbed in beside him. “It was a gift from the Empress Sheba in the third great and bountiful human empire,” he explained. “Well, she insisted. I had to get rid of all the extra draperies that came with the damn thing, and she’d already destroyed the original blankets with her–-well, she was quite the uh–mmf.”

Jack silenced the Doctor with two fingers at his lips. “Thanks, I don’t need the history.” He let his fingers slide down the Doctor’s face and over his shoulder. The Doctor blinked, his brown eyes wide and dark. He looked stunned and didn’t move. Jack thought it was endearing how the Doctor liked to ramble especially when nervous. They hadn’t found themselves in bed together in a damn long time. And Jack wasn’t certain anymore that resting was really what they were really about to do. “Sheba,” Jack murmured. “Was she good?”

“She was–-well,” the Doctor raised an eyebrow, “it is a good bed, isn’t it?” 

Jack chuckled, and the Doctor smiled too, with a look of grateful relief–-the first easy smile he’d given since Jack had stepped on board.

Jack reached out to him, with one hand on the Doctor’s arm. “I shouldn’t have let you go last time.”

“You have Torchwood. Ianto.”

“Yes. And they need me, too.”

“’Course they do.” The Doctor’s voice was soft and affectionate. 

Jack felt his body respond, and he untangled his fingers and let them wander around the Doctor’s skinny waist. He sighed, letting his eyes shut for a moment. The bed was warm and cozy, and when he opened his eyes again the Doctor was even closer, just a few inches from his face. 

“Rest well, Jack,” he whispered, and leaned forward. Their lips met, and Jack felt just a hint of cool moisture. Then the Doctor pulled away again, shutting his eyes with a smile playing at his mouth. Jack had forgotten how the Doctor’s mouth felt, and now his blood was racing. 

The Doctor sighed and shifted into the sheets, settling in, sleepy and comfortable. Jack almost didn’t want to disturb him, but he moved closer. “Doctor,” he said quietly, his voice trembling. 

The Doctor’s eyes fluttered open, “Mm?”

He leaned in, pressing his mouth to the Doctor’s, who moaned in surprise. Jack gripped the Doctor’s hip and the Doctor responded to his kiss. Their tongues wound around each other. And just as quickly, the Doctor pulled away. “Jack.” His eyes were wide and luminous. 

Jack ran his hands up the Doctor’s back. “Do we have to stop?”

“You tell me,” the Doctor answered. “Your partner, Ianto?”

“He’s not here, is he?”

“Still, twenty-first century? Doesn’t seem right.”

“He knows me well enough,” Jack said. “He knows about you.” 

“So I noticed.”

Jack pulled the Doctor close again. The Doctor barely moved, as Jack sucked at his neck and licked a line around his earlobe. Jack murmured in his ear. “Make love to me before we go save a few worlds?”

The Doctor groaned and his hips arched into Jack’s. “Oh, yes!” His cool hands stroked Jack’s back and he met Jack’s lips. They wrapped around each other, and for all the way that time passed in the Vortex, they may have been there for an entire week, blissfully making love. But it wasn’t a whole week, because neither of them had that kind of patience, and anyway they had an appointment in 10,000 years.

Afterward, Jack lay curled around the Doctor, chewing mindlessly at his shoulder. The Doctor’s fingers twined with Jack’s over the curls on his stomach.

Jack sighed with satisfaction. “Could die right now and be happy.” 

“People always say that,” the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around him and grinning at the ceiling. “It doesn’t mean much coming from you.”

Jack laughed. “That’s why I can say it. Sleep now?”

“Yeah,” The Doctor leaned his face into Jack’s hair. “Are you going to tell him?” 

Jack shrugged against him and fell asleep. 

\--

Jack woke up 20 minutes–-or 20 hours-–or 20 days later, a bit chilly on the bed. He smelled the Doctor close by, but found the bed abandoned. He heard the musical sounds of the Time Lord’s Gallifreyan mumbling, and he opened his eyes to see the Doctor standing by the wall fully dressed, running his fingers along the star charts. 

Jack pushed off the blankets and roused himself. He walked over, and the Doctor’s frame stiffened as Jack wrapped an arm around him and pressed his mouth against the Doctor’s neck. The Doctor’s hair was wet, and he smelled freshly showered. “Not now,” the Doctor murmured, shifting away. “Here’s where we’re going. Only–“

“What?” asked Jack, pulling away to see what the Doctor was pointing to.

“This chart doesn’t map the new timeline.” He rubbed his neck. “And these planets have a strange orbit. We’ll have to do a bit of acrobatics to move the Tardis about.” 

Jack shrugged. “If you say so.”

The Doctor pulled away. “Meet me outside whenever you’re ready.” He squeezed Jack’s fingers, then walked out the door. 

“Right,” Jack muttered to himself. He showered, letting the hot water rush over his body and trying to make sense of the morning. What would he tell Ianto about the Doctor? He supposed nothing had changed. They’d been lovers before, now they were again, and it wasn’t going to last. Whatever they had shared, it seemed the Doctor was already trying to forget. 

Jack towelled off his body, sinking his nose into the blue Egyptian cotton to smell the Tardis’ laundry scent, and hung the towel up neatly on the rail. With a final glance around the Doctor’s room, he shut the door behind him as he left. He steeled himself as he walked back down the corridor toward the console room. It would be like nothing at all had happened between them.


	3. Kalalima Power Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's where the action really begins. Jack/Ten recruit help to shut down Kalalima Power Station.

Jack and the Doctor burst out of the Tardis into a corridor of the Inter-federal Kalalima Nuclear Facility on the planet Slavinia. Marching down the hallway, they pushed through two glass doors into an office. 

The receptionist looked up, startled, from her computer monitor. Jack noted her features—human, maybe 40 years old, though her hair was purple and scaley like dried snake skin. “And who might you be?” she asked. “No sign of you on the security feeds.”

The Doctor flashed his psychic paper. “John Smith, Senior Nuclear Officer from the Inter-federal Energy Institute. And my associate, Jack.”

She grabbed the paper from the Doctor’s hand. “Is that so, Mr. Psychic Paper?” she asked, waving it around in front of his face. “Isn’t this a bit archaic?” 

Jack smiled. “Saw that coming.” He leaned across the desk. “Don’t mind him. We’re here from the past.” With a raised eyebrow, he added, “Ever heard of the Time Lords?”

“Thought Time Lords were a legend.” She wasn’t quite pretty, but Jack liked strong women. And the hazel-green of her eyes set off her hair in a stunning way.

“Well,” the Doctor said, looking miffed. “The best legends are true. And I am the last.” 

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said. Though, she didn't sound particularly sorry at all. 

“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “Look, we’ve detected enhanced radiation signatures from this solar system. You’ve got to shut down the reactors.”

“Look, Time Lord or not, you don’t have authority to shut us down!”

“Just listen,” Jack told her. “Time Lord. He sees the time lines in the universe. And yours is a bit, well, explosive. We’re here to protect you.”

“You’re a nuclear plant,” the Doctor explained, “Not an observatory. So you couldn’t have known. Your star is about to go boom. Explode. Supernova. The entire planet, gone. Obliterated. Dust.”

“The point is,” Jack cut in, “before it does, that radiation is going to heat up the reactors and cause a meltdown. Radiation poisoning across the planet. And then mass extinction.” 

“We have noticed overheating in the reactor core,” she answered, looking concerned. “Look, I’m Kira Jenson, head of security. Who are you, really?”

“I’m the Doctor. Time Lord, last of. This here is--” 

“Captain Jack Harkness, Ma’am,” said Jack, standing at attention, with a little salute.

“Stop it,” the Doctor growled out of the side of his mouth.

“Doctor and Captain of what, exactly?” Kira asked.

“Everything,” said the Doctor.

“Exactly,” added Jack.

“Right,” said Kira, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Just a minute, then.” She peered at her computer screen, typing, and brought up a network login page. 

The Doctor grinned as her passkey was accepted and the page loaded. “Brilliant.”

“What is it?” Jack asked, trying to see the screen. There were columns of numbers and figures in different colours, scrolling down, constantly updating.

“The observatories feed data through the core servers at the Outer Astronomical Alliance,” Kira explained. “Their software synthesizes the data, then sends it back to the scientists for analysis. I can track any radiation spikes before they're reported, then forecast the impact on our facility.” 

“You’re not just head of security,” the Doctor said. “You’re—well—you’re brilliant!” His face spread into a grin.

“Chief Security Officer,” said Kira. “I’m an expert in network systems, statistics, and organizational engineering, with some nuclear power engineering on the side,” she shrugged. “Takes more than cameras and batons to secure a nuclear facility, Doctor.”

“Well,” grinned the Doctor, pulling on his brainy specs, “one genius to another. Let’s take a look, shall we?”

Jack couldn’t make anything out of the data, but the Doctor's eyes danced across the screen. “There, see the gamma radiation levels? And the increased solar flare activity?” 

Kira muttered as she scrolled, her eyes moving up and down across the screen. The Doctor's jacket grazed her shoulder as he leaned over her, and their cheeks nearly touched. Kira cast the Doctor a glance and nearly found their mouths together. Flushing, she quickly turned back to the computer. 

Jack wondered if the Doctor noticed. Kira was just going to be another tick on the chart of women—and men—the Doctor had seduced without even realizing it. He wondered if she looked Time Lord enough for the Doctor’s tastes. 

“You’re right,” she said finally. “It’s off the charts. And if this pattern continues—” 

“Point me to the control centre, and I'll shut down the reactors,” said the Doctor. He rocked back on his heels. “Jack has better resistance to radiation sickness and electric shock than your people—he can go out to the field for damage control.”

Kira crossed her arms, staring down the Doctor. “We have trained operators on staff.”

The Doctor smiled. “Of course. You’re in charge,” he said. “So, what next?”

“Well,” said Kira, dropping her arms and looking back at the computer. “As you said, we could shut down here. The operators can take Jack through the facility. You’re the expert on him, I suppose.”

The Doctor mouth dropped open, and he glanced at Jack, who just smiled and shrugged.

Kira continued. “I’ll call the Institute to initiate the shut down.” She touched a finger to her ear—everyone in this time had communications implants.

But the Doctor shook his head. “We don’t have time for bureaucracy.”

Kira dropped her hand. “You’re right, of course,” she said. 

She sighed and turned to Jack. “The operator can guide you through the system.” Then she turned to the Doctor. “And you—we’ll shut down from the main control room, as you said. But I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Fair enough,” said the Doctor. 

Kira ushered them into the control room. Walls and control panels were covered in gauges and dials and switches in pale greens and greys--archaic-looking, like 30th century technology, Jack thought. One wall flashed with status reports and live feeds from each of the reactors, scrolling data on the system pressures and temperatures. 

The system operators stood as they entered, dressed in grey uniforms. Only their white caps stood out against the dull tones of the room. Jack knew those hats were made of a fabric that felt like cotton and became completely solid on impact—warm hard-hats, in essence. What Jack wouldn't give to have that technology for his Torchwood staff.

The operator in charge stepped forward, standing out from the others in his striped green uniform. Kira introduced him: “Doctor, Jack, this is Senior Operator Major Kantir of the Nuclear Brigade. He’ll show you the controls.” 

“Splendid,” the Doctor answered. “Now, let me ask you this: does everyone here have a K and R sound in their names?”

Jack interrupted the Doctor’s strange musings. “Captain Jack Harkness, nice to meet you,” he said, offering the Major a hearty military hand-shake. “I’m a former military officer myself. Ever heard of World War II on Earth, 20th century?” 

The man raised an eyebrow. “How is the 20th century pertinent?” 

“It’s not,” the Doctor muttered, shooting Jack a look. “This is not a military action. More of a citizen's intervention. Your plant is in imminent danger of melt-down. Radiation levels are rising across the planet.”

“It's true,” Kira confirmed. 

Major Kantir was less than thrilled with the Doctor taking over the control centre while he guided Jack through the facility, but deferred to Kira’s instructions. 

“If anything goes wrong,” Kira told him, “send Jack in first. His species is more resilient than ours, and he’ll know what to do.”

“Yes, sir,” the Major answered, looking Jack over again. “Dispensable, is he?”

“Not exactly,” the Doctor answered. Jack just stood proud at attention like a good soldier, and the Doctor winked at him behind the Major's back. Jack saluted to the Doctor as they left the room. “Don’t take too long,” the Doctor told him. 

As Kantir and the team marched out the door, the Doctor flicked through the controls to view the status of the facility. “We have three reactors on site,” Kira showed him on the wall diagrams. “Heavy water is sent through thorium rods, releasing the excess energy that super-heats the water in the boiler tanks above. But the water temperature in both places has been rising.”

She flicked a switch to show the heat map in the system compared with the usual levels. “The gamma rays from your sun are exciting the process,” the Doctor pointed out. 

“Yes. The thorium reaction’s occurring more quickly than normal.” 

“Right, breaking down more particles in less time, which heats up the water faster,” the Doctor continued. “Ultimately, your turbines get overloaded, the water leaks, and the transformers blow.”

“Right,” Kira said. “Ending in fire, and basically, meltdown.”

“But we're here. It shouldn't come to that.” The Doctor flashed her a smile, then flicked on the communications. “Major Kantir, I’m commencing shut-down on the first reactor.”

“Roger that,” the Major’s voice filtered through a speaker in the wall. “We’re headed there now. T minus 2 minutes.”

“You don’t have implants,” Kira noted. "No built-in communication system?"

“Oh, no!” The Doctor tugged his earlobes, “My senses are organic and all-natural.” He grinned his wide smile, and then he leapt into motion, flipping switches and dials to shut the plant down. Their tech seemed to be a mash of contemporary and archaic—he supposed that was to be expected in a backwater solar system. 

“I’ll be outside,” Kira said, “I have some calls to make.” 

The Doctor nodded. He continued to dance around the room and switch off systems. Luckily they’d caught the problem with plenty of time to spare. He was far more worried about what was to come in the next plants, where time would be running out.

Major Kantir’s team of engineers moved with military precision from one reactor to the next, and they advised the Doctor how to shut down from the control center. The team made adjustments at each facility and checked the equipment, under Kantir’s supervision. 

It bothered the Doctor that he couldn’t talk directly to Jack—but they didn’t need to. Jack winked once or twice at the cameras, and the Doctor could see he was enjoying being along for the ride, rather than the one in charge. 

In the quieter moments, the Doctor found himself watching Kira through the window. She had a finger on the implant on her ear, talking on the phone. 

She finally came back in to the control room, shaking her head. “The other plants won’t listen—we don’t have authority. I left messages at the Institute, but getting through their automated phone system could take 10 years.”

“Right,” the Doctor said. “We’ll just have to visit each plant one by one, shall we?” 

He flicked a few more switches on the board to shut off the final reactor. The systems were grinding to a halt and would slowly cool down. He peered at the team’s progress on the screens—Kantir, Jack and the others in tow were nearly done and heading back to the control centre. 

Now that the plant had stopped generating electricity, whole swathes of the planet could lose power. That would get them thinking.

“So you’re freelancers?” Kira broke into his thoughts.

“Something like that.” The Doctor smiled. “We just don’t accept payment.”

“Time travellers—I suppose you wouldn’t,” she said. “What good would a keylar be on Sto, or a lira on Vegalouise?”

“Exactly,” the Doctor smiled, then looked at her. “We’ll need to consider evacuations. Does Slavinia have a space port? Any way of getting the staff off-world, out of the galaxy if possible?” 

“My cousin’s an airship captain,” Kira said, her face brightening up. “I’ll call her.”

“Good,” the Doctor said. “Outside the solar system, you know. Beyond reach of your sun.”

Kira nodded. “She’ll manage.” Then she gave him a thoughtful look. “You act like you do this every day.”

“Trouble seems to find me, yeah,” the Doctor said with a half-smile. 

“You don’t worry about dying?” She drew closer to him, intrigued.

“Humans,” The Doctor shook his head. “You lot, all you do is worry about dying. Not me.”

“With you around, it seems necessary.” 

The Doctor leaned back over the controls. “Major Kantir? Check that last unit and get everyone back to base immediately.”

Kira stood quietly nearby, watching him for a minute. He turned back to her. “Kira, call your family and friends. Get them here now. We'll take them off-world with us.” 

She shook her head and looked down. 

“There’s room in my ship. Come with me,” he urged.

She shook her head and braced herself against the table nearby. “Husband died last year in an accident. Children too.” She took a breath, and the Doctor saw her hands shake and jaw clench with emotion. “Couldn’t save them. I just threw myself into the work and—well,” she turned away. “Friends—couldn’t really call them that now. It’s my fault, really, I just pushed them away.”

In a moment he was beside her, one hand hovering over her shoulder, but not daring to touch. She met his eyes, full of tears that made him nearly flinch. 

“I’ll call them anyway.” And instead of reaching for him, she turned away. The door shut behind her, and he watched through the window as she put a finger to her ear to make another phone call. Her eyes were already dry. 

The Doctor turned back to the controls. Kira was a strong woman. The reactors were off. He knew everything was fine, but he still couldn't wait to see Jack burst through that door again.


	4. Albarossa Nuclear Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes meet the station operators at the second nuclear plant and work to shut it down.

“Answer the phone!” the Doctor shouted. The beeping continued, so he hung up in disgust. “The signal’s blocked. I can’t get through to the control room at the next plant.”

“We’ll just have to go in,” Jack said. 

“I got the codes.” The Doctor swung the console monitor around to show Jack the reactors' status. “We've got to move. Fires are already breaking out. What the Hell could they be doing?”

Heels clacked in the corridor, and Kira walked in. “There’s no answer from the Institute,” she announced. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they wanted this to happen!”

“Could be,” the Doctor said. “But we don’t have time to pay them a visit just yet.” 

“My cousin sent me the rendezvous point,” Kira said. “The good news is, she got the Kalalima plant staff safely off-world, and they're all frantically calling their relatives, friends, contacts in the press—everyone they can.”

“Fantastic,” the Doctor said.

“I left Major Kantir in charge of contacting customers. Once people start losing power, they’ll pay attention.”

“Right,” the Doctor said, spinning a lever on the console. “Time to go in on Plant Number Two. Hold on tight!” 

He twisted a dial, banged on a brick that went ding!, and pulled down the displacement rotor. The Tardis spun and shook. Jack and Kira gripped the rails. Jack grinned, and Kira looked terrified. The landing was rough. 

“It’s like time turbulence, tossing her about,” the Doctor said. “Strange gravity fields, what? Are you hiding some kind of pan-dimensional black hole in those asteroids?”

“A what?” Kira asked.

“But here we are!” he continued. “Albarossa Nuclear Power Plant of the Third World of Vegalouise! Well, the only world, really—the first two were a bit rubbish. They didn't last long, let me tell you.”

They stepped out to a scene of chaos. Their nostrils burned with the acrid smell of chemical fire and smoke. People were shouting and running down the road in between the large buildings of the facility. 

Jack was grateful he'd studied the maps and caught a glimpse of the console display while they were landing—he knew where they were, and where to go. “That way!” he started to run against the tide of people in bright green safety gear. 

The Doctor grabbed Kira’s hand. “Run!” He sensed they were heading north. He hoped Jack knew, too.

Jack fought a surge of claustrophobia, realizing they were surrounded by panicked people, hemmed in by the cement domes and other buildings thrumming with the noise of turbines and other machines. 

Then in front of him, a figure dressed in black seemed to materialize out of the smoke. It trained a gun on him. “Freeze, terrorists!” 

The Doctor slid to a stop, yanking Kira back with him behind a wall. 

“I’m Captain Jack Harkness, here to shut down the plant!” Jack said. “It’s going critical.”

“Damn straight it is!” she said. “Never seen you before—you don’t work here. You’re the terrorists who did this to us!”

“I was called in to help you!” Jack returned. “Come with me. It’s overheating out here! And hey, it’s not just the nuclear meltdown—I love that outfit!”

“Thanks!” The guard answered. “This outfit is killer, isn’t it?”

“Gotta admit,” Jack said, “I do have a thing for uniforms.”

Even behind a wall, the Doctor could imagine Jack’s flirty shrug and eyebrow dance. He groaned, hitting the back of his head against the wall. 

Then he felt Kira’s sweaty palm in his own. “You’re an expert on him,” she said, “but he’s not an expert on you, is he?”

“Well,” he said, not having an answer.

Plucky under pressure, she was. They were trying to hide after all, not discuss his personal relationships. He peered looked out from the side of the building. 

And just as he’d feared, the guard had Jack turning around, hands meekly behind his back, and was pushing him forward. “Right, you don’t have to shove!”

“You have a thing for uniforms—I have a thing for restraints," the guard told him. "This is going to work well for us.”

The Doctor pulled back, hiding again, but it was too late. They’d been seen.

“Hands up! You there! Where I can see ‘em!” she called. 

“Just do as she says,” the Doctor nudged Kira, and they both brought their hands up. 

“Sorry, Doc,” Jack said.

“I see your friends are pretty hot, too,” the security guard said with a chuckle, as she led the three of them inside the building. “This one’s nearly soaked her collar sweating. Hey, sweets!” she poked her gun in Kira's back. “Hands a little higher. There you go.” 

She led them back in the other direction, past the Tardis, away from the control centres. “No, but really—we can help,” the Doctor told her, but it fell on deaf ears.

Another guard joined them, and the Doctor caught Jack's eye. It was too late to try and fight, to make a break for it now. They were pushed down a flight of stairs and into a dim room. The lock turned with a thunk in the door. It was a basement, badly painted. Probably once a storage room, but no longer used. No windows, no seats, no books or tools—just the door. 

“Sonic?” whispered Jack.

“Oh yes!” the Doctor nodded. He held a finger to his lips and listened to the footsteps echoing back up the stairs. Then he pulled the screwdriver from his coat pocket.

“What’s that?” Kira asked, looking at it.

“It’s sonic!” the Doctor said.

“What, a sonic pen?” she said. “That and your psychic paper? Those are the kinds of tools you have, Mr. Scientist of Everything?” 

“It’s a screwdriver!” said Jack. “Master carpenter, he is.”

“Stop it!” the Doctor hissed. “Both of you!”

Then he aimed the sonic at the lock. He expected it to open quickly, but it didn’t. He jiggled the lock. “Nothing,” he said to Jack, arching an eyebrow. Jack seemed to know this world’s tech better than himself. He didn’t really want to know how Jack knew, but it could be useful.

“It’s locked against sonic wave-forms,” Kira told him. “You geniuses really are from the past.” 

From her back pocket, she pulled out a small plastic card of some sort, and went to work on the lock. The Doctor couldn’t quite see what she was doing in the dim light. In about 20 seconds, the door was popped open, and Kira put a finger to her lips. Together, the trio listened for anyone up the stairs. The corridor seemed empty. She slid open the door, and they listened again.

Nothing. Kira peeked out and found the corridor empty.

“Go! Go, go, go!” said Jack, as they all rushed back up the stairs. 

“This way,” Kira said, pulling the Doctor’s arm as they got to the top flight. “I’ve studied these buildings. We need to find the main control room.”

“How did you do that, back there?” asked the Doctor.

“Hacker, that’s me.” They found a golf cart nearby, hopped on, and Kira drove them past buildings, toward the source of the smoke. She gestured to the back as she drove. “Should be spare hard hats back there.”

The Doctor didn’t think a hard hat and fluorescent vest would help them much—but he had to confess, the beefy construction worker look suited Jack. They pulled up and got off the cart by the next building over from the control centre, and approached on foot from behind the main entrance. Sure enough, there was another guard waiting outside. They snuck up, and with a war whoop, Jack whacked the guy upside the head, and he fell unconscious on the ground.

“That’s got to hurt,” the Doctor said, looking down at him as they walked by. “It's as I've said all along. Torchwood's barbaric.”

“Better than dying,” Jack retorted. “Which happens to all of us, if we don’t shut this place down!”

“Can’t argue with that.” 

They rushed in the control centre, and the staff looked up in alarm. “Hold it right there!” said the operator. 

The Doctor put his arms in the air. “Hold on, hold on! We’re the experts just called in. Here to help!”

“Jenson?” the operator said.

“That’s me,” Kira held up her badge from the other plant. “Kira Jenson, Chief Security Officer at Kalalima Plant. Everyone stand down.” She walked up to the man. “Good to see you, Andross.”

“But if you’re here, that means—“

“We’ve got a problem. All across the planet. We shut down Kalalima hours ago.” 

“And the others?”

“Interfed won't answer my calls. The sun’s about to go supernova, and the gamma radiation’s exciting the reactor cores—they’re all going to melt down.” 

“Supernova?” A rattle of whispers behind them as her warning sunk in.

“Shh!” The Doctor put his finger to his lips and shushed the staff.

Andross continued. “Our cooling system’s fed by the ocean, and we’re overheating—but the water level’s dropping. We were about to inject fresh water—“ 

The Doctor was already by his side. “Listen to me. I’m the Doctor. Hello! Andross, was it? Cooling the reactors won’t prevent melt-down if the core’s overworked. We’ve got to shut down and evacuate.”

“Do as he says,” Kira told them. 

Andross nodded. “Only because it's you, Kira.” He stepped aside, gesturing for his staff to do the same. 

“Thanks for the endorsement,” she answered, with a hint of sarcasm. “I’ll give you a call if I’m looking for job references on the next world.”

“Right!” said the Doctor, already in motion and scrolling through data on the main control screen. “Jack, it looks like Reactor 2 is in the worst state—go to Station 2 over there.” He typed in the controls. “The code’s 4867.”

The men standing around lowered their weapons and looked on in confusion as Jack and the Doctor went to work. Jack jumped to the second station and typed in the code, then pulled the switches. 

“How did you do that?!” Andross asked.

“He cheated,” Jack said.

The Doctor frowned at him. “I hacked the algorithm from space. Did I mention, I’m from space? And I do not cheat. I hack. I’m a hacker. Among other things. So, I hacked your system, and found your passwords. ”

“Does he always natter on like this?” Kira asked Jack. 

“One of his many endearing qualities,” Jack answered. 

The Doctor winked at them. “Reactor 1 next! 55163! Turn the dial slowly, Jack. Slowly, now!”

He went to work, dialing dials, switching switches, then looked up. “What are you all standing there for? Kira and Andross, stay put. The rest of you, go through the plant and put out the fires. Shut down equipment. Then gather your families for evacuation. Meet back at the front gate in an hour. We’ll take you to safety.”

They mostly gaped at him for a second. “Our sun’s going supernova,” Kira said. “We don’t have long—a week, maybe. Best to get off-world now. In another day, the skies will be a traffic jam with mass panic.” 

“You can’t be serious,” one of the men spoke up. 

“What is this, some reality TV prank?”

“You’re telling us the planet’s going to be destroyed!”

“Yes, it's real,” the Doctor called. “This planet’s dying. But there are plenty of good rocks out there. One of them could be your new home. I can take you with me, on my ship. So, don’t stand around gawking. Go on, now!”

“You heard the man,” Andross said. “Carly, Smee, Shayley, get out there. Go do the coolant injection. Check the system. I'll guide you from the comms here. The rest of you, get your families.”

Then he turned to Jack and the Doctor. “How many people can you take?”

“We’ll take everyone,” the Doctor said, looking around. “There’s room for everyone on my ship. Hundreds! And I promise you, I will find you a new home.”

“Right, you heard the man. Now, out!” Andross ordered. The people roused themselves and began to move.

Andross watched them in shock himself until the Doctor called to him. “Now, Andross, call the other nuclear plants--Meriki, Cremino, Baluca. See if you can get them to shut down before they start to melt down.”

Andross saluted. “Consider it done, sir.”

The Doctor grimaced at the salute. “Ah, none of that.”

“He’s a bit shy,” Jack said.

Andross looked back and forth between Jack and the Doctor. “You and I aren’t looking at the same man.” And he walked out of the room.

“Doctor,” Kira said, “I’m going to try the news networks again, and the Institute. You don’t need my help here.”

“Good luck,” said the Doctor. “We’ll do alright.” 

“Course you will,” she smiled, and flipped open her phone as she walked outside. “Just don’t try using your sonic. Really.”

“She's good,” Jack said, when they were alone in the control centre. 

“Jack!” the Doctor said, over-pronouncing his name. “Two more to shut down. Reactor 7.”

“Ready,” Jack said, rushing to the next control station. 

“4867. And they’re all lovely people. Kira, Andross, the lot of them. I love humans, and protect them. That’s me.”

“You do at that,” Jack smirked. “Done.”

“Last one, now. Reactor 4 and 5 performed their automatic shut-down sequence, but the equipment’s malfunctioned on the others. So that leaves Reactor 6.”

“Right,” Jack said, hopping to the last station.

“5734. And, Jack. Now that we’re alone?”

“Yeah, Doctor. Is it time for a snog?” Jack lifted an eyebrow, as he punched the code in the computer and flipped the switches.

“Flirting with the guard back there?” the Doctor said. “That was your cleverest idea?”

“It was worth a try,” Jack shrugged. He looked up to see the Doctor staring at him.

“If she wasn’t so incompetent, and Kira wasn’t with us, you and I would still be locked up right now in that basement,” the Doctor muttered.

“But we’re not,” Jack pointed out. “And your sonic didn't work too great either.” 

He looked down and turned the dial. He wondered off-hand how they always managed to have the serious conversations when they were in the middle of a crisis. Usually a crisis with a radio-active half-life. “It’s done now. All reactors off-line.”

The Doctor nodded. “Good job, soldier.”

“You can thank me when they’re all shut down,” Jack glanced at him.

“Two plants down, three to go,” said the Doctor, coming around to Jack’s side. “Not a bad start for the day, I suppose.” He grinned and leaned in very close to Jack, with one hand on the control panels.

Jack tilted his face and met the Doctor’s mouth and their teeth clattered together. They cringed, and then slowly reached forward again. Jack opened his mouth as the Doctor’s lips pressed into his own, deepening the kiss. 

“Quite right,” murmured the Doctor, pulling away. His faced was flushed. “Really should go check on Kira.”

“And Andross,” smirked Jack. “And crew?”

“Of course. We have a herd of humans to collect, don’t we?”

“The Tardis is going to be a zoo!” laughed Jack.

“Oi! Humans aren’t to be kept in cages.”

“How do you plan to keep them organised?”

“I’ve just the plan,” the Doctor said as they filed out of the control room. “First, to re-assemble the Tardis.”


	5. The Tardis, Revisited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor starts to evacuate refugees, but has to do more than just rearrange the Tardis rooms to accommodate them.

The Doctor somehow managed to convince the Tardis to print maps of her new layout, to help the refugees settle in. Jack and Andross looked on as the Doctor showed them blueprints. Gone were the rec rooms, the kitchens, the library, pool, and zoo facilities. Gone were the Doctor's favorite reading nook and the wardrobe room, and even that little broom closet in which Jack once snogged Rose. Even the Doctor’s companions’ rooms had been archived—Rose’s room, Martha’s, and Jack’s own. 

Now, there were two large lounges full of couches and nooks, an industrial kitchen, bathrooms with stalls, and barracks stuffed with bunks. Looking at the plan, Jack could see the Doctor had made as many beds as possible. It looked like he wanted to bring every person in this solar system into the Tardis. Jack wondered how to break it to him—they weren’t going to be able to save everybody. 

But at the first pass, they’d managed quite a few. Seventy, maybe. Families, friends, and even random passers-by. They filed on board dazed and confused, most of them uncertain what was going on. Jack led them to a temporary, dimension-shifted holding room, while the Doctor tried to reconfigure the ship. 

Now, he gathered everyone into the console room. Jack, Kira, and Andross stood beside the time rotor, protecting the controls from the crowd's wandering hands. The Doctor stood up on his chair and waved the sonic about, getting everyone’s attention. “Right then, I’m the Doctor!” he called. “This is my ship. Yes, it’s bigger on the inside. Make yourself at home. For now, stick to the rooms on this map that Andross here is holding.” He stabbed the air with his finger, pointing to the map, then waved the finger at them with a warning. “Don’t touch anything. Time could get stuck. Yes, I’m not lying. All of reality could explode. Don’t. Touch. Anything!”

He pointed at Andross standing next to him. “Most of you know Brigadier Andross. You're in his care while on board. Any questions? Ask him, not me. I’ll be busy saving your planet.” 

Jack's mind wandered. He knew the speech about how the sun was about to go supernova, how they could never go home again. He already expected the horrified reaction. But he snapped back to reality once chaos started to break out.

“If you’re so high and mighty,” one person called, “Why can’t you save our planet?”

“Yeah,” another echoed. “None of our scientists said the sun's about to explode! Who do you think you are?”

“He just wants to kidnap us and our families!”

“You’re hardly my prisoner,” the Doctor shouted over the din, lowering his screwdriver. Jack thought he looked a little hurt by the accusation. “Calm down and listen. I know what it’s like to watch your planet die. And believe me, if there was any other way, I’d prevent it. But I can’t.”

“But where will we go?”

“Yeah, we can’t stay on this sorry ship forever. Even if it is bigger on the inside.”

“Oi, now!” the Doctor exclaimed. “She’s doing the best she can for you. You’ll have a new home, soon—well, a new planet even!”

Jack could see the Doctor was trying to make this work. He’d spent 15 minutes activating a slew of mobile phones so people could contact their families from the Vortex, arranging pick-up points for evacuees. He was rearranging the entire ship for them—but they didn’t understand, and the Doctor hadn't anticipated their rebellion. The refugees didn’t know the Doctor, didn’t trust him, and had no idea what he would sacrifice to save their sorry butts. 

Now it looked like he was the one who needed saving. “Doctor,” Jack called. “We have to shut down the other reactors! Now.”

“All right!” the Doctor called, jumping down from his chair. “I leave you all in Andross’ capable hands.”

He came up to the console and looked Andross in the eye. “You know what to do.”

“Yes, sir,” Andross smiled. Then, raising his voice. “Everyone come with me! Out of the control room immediately.”

Jack helped herd everyone out—they didn’t like it, but there weren’t really any teeth in their rebellion. Enough of them trusted Andross and Kira. The Doctor pushed another button, and the door behind their guests sealed shut.

“You’re not locking them in there!” Kira said, surprised, as the door lowered.

“Do you have a better alternative?” the Doctor asked. “I can’t trying to walk out of doors into space, or pressing buttons that would unravel time, can I?”

“You told them they weren’t prisoners,” she protested.

“They’re refugees,” Jack broke in. “They’re here on asylum. And we have to keep them contained for their own good. It’s temporary.”

“I don’t like it,” Kira clacked her fingernails against the console, and Jack could see her eyes skitter across the panels, wondering what all the levers and buttons were for.

“I don’t either,” the Doctor agreed. “All of those people, stuffed in an old Type-40 Tardis? She’s not built for this. We’re already having trouble navigating—now we’re going to be whirling around like headless chickens through space. But what choice is there?”

He pulled the levers and the ship spun about and skidded with a lurch, as they clung with white knuckles to the railings. Kira looked nauseous, and Jack was grateful his own stomach was pretty much invincible. He didn’t want know how all those humans stuffed in the other rooms were faring right now. But the Doctor was already running for the door, his eyes wild, calling “Allons-y!” Jack didn't have time to think about the refugees any longer.


	6. Cremino One Nuclear Plant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As radiation levels rise, Jack/10 face more danger shutting down the third of the five nuclear stations. Warnings for temporary character death.

Jack, Kira, and the Doctor tumbled out of the Tardis. The air was thick with smoke, and they could see buildings rising around them, but the Cremino One plant was otherwise deserted. One of the reactors had been blocked by an influx of fish into the cooling system the week before and was already cold. Three others had been shut down by the staff earlier in the day. The staff hadn’t been able to shut the remaining two reactors down, and apparently they’d just fled, once they had already hit a meltdown point. 

The Doctor looked at the empty roads in front of them and turned back to Kira, his voice firm. “You shouldn’t be here. Go back in the Tardis. Stay with your people, in safety.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Kira said, equally stubborn. “You’re saving my planet. I’ll help you any way I can.” 

The Doctor’s slow grin spread across his face, and he took her hand. “Then let's go.”

“This way!” Jack said, already heading into the thickest smoke. 

A bad feeling tugged the Doctor's skin, like an electric charge crackling in the air. “Wait,” he called. “Jack—don’t!” Time was wrong—no, space was wrong—no, there was an electromagnetic pulse, expanding. Something burst ahead of them with a bang. The explosion threw dust and smoke in the Doctor’s eyes, and he pushed Kira to the ground, as debris flew at their heads. When they looked up, Jack had fallen under a pile of rocks and wood. His trouser legs and shoes jutted out from the rubble. 

“No!” The Doctor stumbled over, pushing smashed concrete slabs off Jack’s body. His leg was smashed in, and his neck jutted out at an odd angle. The Doctor shuddered and felt his stomach turn. He bent down and sought for a pulse. He knew there was none—Jack was too ashen, his neck bent at the wrong angle, and there was blood pooling at his side.

Oh, the Doctor had seen plenty of death. He’d seen Jack die more times than he cared to count. It still wasn’t easy to watch. It would be easier to walk away, to shut down the plant, to imagine he’d come back later. But there was no guarantee he would really convince himself to return or that he’d even be able to find Jack again. 

The Doctor squatted down, tracing the broken curve of his friend's neck. He couldn't leave. He needed Jack. For one thing, he’d promised Ianto. His thoughts flitted to other promises he’d made. How few people he’d managed to keep safe. He just wanted one person who’d make it easy to keep that kind of promise. And Jack was a fixed point. 

He felt Kira’s small, hot hands on his neck. “Doctor, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head, as her fingers threaded through his hair, trying to comfort him. He hadn’t told her Jack couldn’t die yet. He’d been hoping he wouldn’t need to. He stood up, and pulled Kira away from Jack’s body. They didn’t have to look at him while they waited. Usually, it didn’t take long. Any minute now.

Kira's hands curled around his upper arms. “There's nothing we can do for him now.”

He couldn't meet her eyes. For a moment he just stood in place, then he pulled her down, sitting against a wall. “Just give him a minute,” he said quietly. “Trust me.”

He kept his arm around her, and she leaned in closer. He felt her take a breath, and she spoke gently but firmly, “I know how you feel, but we have to keep moving.” 

“No. We wait.” He didn’t have to explain—she’d see soon enough, what Jack was.

“Doctor—“ she quieted, and took his hand, squeezing his fingers. “We should have brought one of the operators,” she said. 

“Too dangerous for them now.”

“But it’s okay for him?” she said. Her face was full of sympathy and frustration. 

“You don’t know him.” 

“You said he was resilient.” She tried to pull him up, but he didn’t budge. “But Doctor, he's gone.” 

“Yes,” he said, “but wait. Kira Jenson, just watch and wait.” And he smiled at her. 

“Our whole planet’s going to disappear, if we don’t move,” she answered. He watched tears fill her eyes, and she turned her face up to the sky, taking a breath to calm herself.

“Not long now,” he said, tugging her back down. 

She looked at him. “Do you know the names of the nuclear plants?” 

“The names?” The Doctor arched an eyebrow. “Kalalima, Albarossa, Cremini, Baluca?”

“And Meriki. All named after exotic birds.” Kira had tears in her eyes. “I had a Kalalima as a pet once. They don’t live long in captivity, so they’re not allowed—but my father travelled to the Kala valley and brought me one. It was shining blue and sang harmonies.”

“Lovely,” the Doctor smiled. 

“It’s how I ended up working at the plant.”

“Kalalima,” the Doctor said, tasting the vowels and delicious flowing consonants. He let his head fall back against the wall of the building. Smoke rose in puffs near the nuclear reactors, and he glanced back to Jack—they really didn’t have much time. But any minute now… 

“I wanted to travel, my whole life,” Kira kept talking. “I wanted to see a Cremino flock rising up from the One Lake of Crem, and the Meriki bird in the volcano crater.”

“Come with me,” the Doctor squeezed her hand, smiling. “When we leave here. You and me. We’ll go to the exotic zoo of Outer Bolivia. They’ve got the largest aviary in the galaxy. Millions of birds. The last of their kind.” 

Kira nodded. “Doctor. We need to go. We need to move now. Or we won’t be able to leave.” 

The Doctor looked around them. Flames were licking the buildings, and they heard the crash of another explosion, or another wall falling. He dropped the back of his head against the wall again. “It really shouldn’t take this long.” He grabbed her watch. “Five more minutes,” he decided. “We can afford that.” 

“Doctor, we don’t have time. I’m sorry—but we don’t.” Her voice was low, getting panicked. "We can't afford to sit here and mourn him."

The Doctor took a deep breath and looked over at Jack—his cheeks might have more colour, or maybe he was just imagining it. Hard to tell with all the smoke around them. The Doctor leaned back against the building and looked up to the sky. “I used to have a zoo for endangered species, on the Tardis.” 

“Used to?”

He smiled. “Yes, well, time-consuming hobby, really. I donated everything to the zoo. They’ll remember me. The Scurry of the planet Strem used to sit on my shoulder and tug my hair.” He ran a hand through his hair, as he spoke. “Pretty pink bird. Sounded like a cat. Mew-mew, he said.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Kira said, shaking her head.

“And I used to have great talks with the Flightless Ockle Bird of Froog. Brilliant fellow!” 

“You what?” Now she just thought he was barmy.

“Froog,” he mused, “It was a nice little planet. Course, it’s gone now,” he shrugged. “We have that in common. My planet’s gone too." He looked at her staring at him. "So, what do you say? Travel with me?”

“Doctor, if we get out of here,” Kira said. 

But the Doctor had moved suddenly, and squatted down, wrapping his fingers around Jack’s neck. He could feel how the vertebrae were smashed and out of place. Suddenly he knew what was taking so long. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, sinking his fingertips against Jack’s spine and cranium. Then he tugged.

Jack’s neck cracked loudly, settling back in place. A few more vertebrae had cracked, but the healing process was quick. The Doctor felt the bone fusing, the muscles knitting themselves up. It was a miraculous process. The Doctor closed his eyes and could still feel the Bad Wolf settling around them--the mighty Vortex energy, the power of Rose Tyler, turning the Daleks to dust before his eyes. 

He shuddered and felt life rushing into Jack beneath him. The man convulsed, heaving a wild, gasping breath. Cold hands clutched the Doctor’s own. But colour returned in a rush to Jack’s face, and his eyes settled finally on the Doctor. 

“You waited!” Jack’s lips quirked up in a wide smile, even as he panted for breath. 

“Welcome back.” The Doctor pulled him to his feet. “We’re running out of time.”

Jack stumbled to his feet and leaned on the Doctor. He caught sight of Kira, who was clutching at the wall, pale as death herself. He grinned at her, finally standing up on his own.

The Doctor moved to Kira and squeezed her shoulder. “Resilient.”

“By resilient,” Jack explained, “he meant I’m immortal.”

“Everything about you both is impossible,” she answered. “Why not this, too?”

“It’s because he can’t commit to any one thing for long,” the Doctor said, grinning. “We’ve got to move,” he called. “Allons-y!” And he started running. 

Jack shook out his shoulders and neck, still feeling the after-shocks of death. He grabbed Kira’s hand, pulling her along in a jog. She tried to keep up with her impossible new friends. Morbid excitement seemed to follow wherever they went, she thought—she just hoped that they could save her people as well as they seemed to scrape out of danger’s way themselves.

While he ran, the Doctor calculated how long it would take for the radiation in the plant to seep out to the neighbourhoods surrounding them and start to poison people—and how long till the massive meltdown couldn’t be stopped. How long until a mushroom cloud would obliterate the entire city, country—until the planet itself burned?

It was time for triage. He’d waited for Jack, but there was a cost. They would have to let some radiation leak from the system, let some fires burn, and leave some things to chance, if they hoped to shut down the next plant. They'd already saved some of Kira's people, and he was good at letting people die, if he had to be honest. Necessary casualties, a sacrifice for the greater good. He thanked whatever stars were left that Jack was still with him, and Kira too—it was the only way he could keep going.

The reactor control room wasn’t far off, not really. They shut down the reactors without too much trouble—more running, more frantic pushing of levers and monitoring the system. That part was almost beginning to feel routine. “The fires will burn themselves out. The rest of the system will shut itself down,” he told his companions.

“No, they won’t,” Kira argued. Smart, she was. “They’ll cause more explosions. People in the area will start getting sick. They’ll die—if not in fire, then by radiation poisoning.”

Jack pushed her to the final control panel. “You’ve got to trust the Doctor. He knows what to do.” 

She looked back and forth between them. “You’ve been right so far,” she finally said, and turned to the last control panel to complete the shut-down sequence.

Jack shot the Doctor a glance when her back was turned, his brows furrowed with the question: had they done enough, now, to save everyone? The Doctor shook his head. It was hopeless, and better if Jack knew that, too. Jack nodded. He understood that lies needed to be told.

“We’ve got to keep moving,” he said, and pulled them out the door toward safety. They ran in a full-scale sprint back to the Tardis. Mission accomplished. Well, part of the mission. Well, sort of accomplished.

Well, they were still alive, and there were still the refugees to care for and the other two plants to shut down.


	7. Radio Frequencies in the Fourth Dimension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes take time to refuel, and Jack tells the Doctor about Cptn. Jack Harkness.   
> Also, what's that suspicious ship hiding out in this solar system?

Andross had organised a kitchen staff, and the Tardis generously provided for them. They’d cooked up a storm, settled the refugees’ stomachs and minds, and set aside meals for the Doctor, Kira, and Jack. It smelled heavenly, but the Doctor took a few bites, then stared at his food. Anything he’d eaten before the last adventure would have come right back up when he’d watched Jack die—and the next time might be worse.

Jack was moving food around his plate with his fork, too. He finally downed a glass of water, then pushed his plate away, and with an apologetic shrug, walked out of the room. Kira and Andross were involved in a discussion about how to keep the refugees calm. The crowds were still upset, feeling trapped, and there were fights breaking out. The Doctor was more than relieved to let Kira and Andross handle that particular issue. He stood up and fled back to the console room to find Jack. 

The Captain was deep in thought, puttering at the monitor. The Doctor peered over Jack's shoulder and saw he was checking up on the next plant’s status—blueprints, the scientific specs, the equipment status. Jack didn’t seem to notice the Doctor, and so he sat down, tucking his body under the console. 

He thought about pretending to tinker at the Tardis to look busy. Instead, he listened to Jack mutter about the plant—automatic shut-down of most systems, mostly evacuated, the operators trying to manually run around and shut down the rest. Some valves that were stuck, regulators that were broken, turbines about to blow apart. Surrounding areas had already been evacuated and iodine administered to prevent radiation poisoning in the neighbouring populations.

Finally Jack sighed, and sat down next to the Doctor. “I don’t need a lot of sleep,” Jack said, “But I sure am exhausted.”

“You slept earlier.” The Doctor didn’t look at Jack. “We don’t have time now.”

“I know,” Jack said. They leaned shoulders against each other and breathed for a minute in silence.

“Two plants left. Baluca and Meriki,” the Doctor said, enunciating the vowels and enjoying the sounds of their names. “Did you know they’re named after exotic birds? The Baluca bird. The Meriki bird.”

“Say that 10 times fast,” Jack snorted. 

“There’s one more thing you need to do before we go, Captain.”

“What’s that?” 

The Doctor reached into his pocket and handed Jack his super-mobile. “Call Ianto Jones. You were dead a long time on that planet.”

Jack nodded. He flipped open the phone, stood up, but sat back down again. “Did I ever tell you about Captain Jack Harkness?”

"Well," the Doctor gave a slight shake of his head. “Always assumed it was an alias. Not exactly a 51st century name.” 

Jack nodded. “American Captain in World War Two. He’d died recently, and I needed a name. It was supposed to be temporary, like everything. And then I met a girl hanging from a barrage balloon.”

They both smiled, thinking of that particular girl. 

“Captain Jack Harkness,” murmured the Doctor, turning Jack’s hand over and looking at the lines of his veins. His timelines spun around, yet never budged. The Doctor had learned to overcome his gut reaction, but it still bothered him.

“I had to live through the 1940s twice more,” Jack said. “I joined Torchwood. Lived through 2008. Then Cardiff’s rift opened to World War Two again—right into a party full of beautiful women dancing with their handsome officers.” Jack smiled. “And I met him. Captain Jack Harkness. It was the night before he died, and I told him to kiss his woman good night.”

The Doctor nodded, tracing a fingertip around Jack’s palm. The quantum-mechanics of his blood were complex equations of physical properties and constants that shouldn’t exist. “I don’t believe that anything about you is coincidence anymore,” the Doctor said quietly.

Jack moved his hand, twining their fingers together. “He took my hand, just like this, and pulled me out on the dance floor.”

Jack tugged and the Doctor looked up into his eyes--they were blue, creased and haunted. “He kissed me,” Jack said, pulling the Doctor forward into a slow kiss. He stroked a circle with his thumb against the Doctor’s wrist. “And then the rift pulled me back to 2008 again. And he was gone, I'd left him behind, to die.”

The Doctor nodded. “Spatio-temporal disturbance.” 

“Yeah. I could still smell him on my clothes the next day,” Jack took a ragged breath. “I hope he’d be proud, or I’ve dishonoured him.”

“He’d be proud,” the Doctor said immediately, as if that was another fixed point in the universe. “Jack, he would.”

Jack nodded, looking down at their hands.

“Call Ianto,” the Doctor repeated. “That night we left. Tell him good night, and you’ll see him tomorrow. Because you will.”

“Yeah.” Jack nodded and flipped open the phone, moving to stand up.

The Doctor stood up also. “Use my room.” 

Jack nodded, “Thanks,” and turned to walk away. The Doctor watched Jack disappear into the corridor, then turned to the Tardis monitor to check on the planet and the nuclear plants. 

People were evacuating en masse. Spaceports were full, and air collisions were at an all-time high. There were candle-lit vigils and people praying. Some people committing suicide and others having wild parties in the streets. The Tardis had even become a bit of a legend—there were plazas and parks full of people waiting to be taken aboard. 

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. “Well. We won’t have time to save birds,” he muttered. 

\-----

He’d only closed his eyes for a moment. Then he heard a breath behind him and felt thick, callused fingertips press in the back of his neck. “Drifting off, Doctor?” Jack’s voice was soft in his ear.

The Doctor blinked at the screen. “How’s Ianto?” he asked, turning to face his companion. 

“He has leads,” Jack said. “Quite a few planets suitable for mostly-human folks these days.”

“Brilliant,” the Doctor nodded. “I am going to get you home.” 

“Never doubted you.” Jack grinned back, his hands on the Doctor’s shoulders. They rocked back and forth as if music was playing, and Jack leaned in toward him. The Doctor, this time, was perfectly aware of his own eyes fluttering shut, and Jack’s cheek against his own. “Is she going to stay with you?” Jack asked.

“Hmm? Yes,” the Doctor said, without opening his eyes. 

He felt Jack’s body relax a touch. “Good. I don’t want my Doctor to be alone.”

“Oh,” the Doctor breathed a startled sound, and his arms gripped tighter around Jack’s body. Jack thought they might just stay there, together for a while. 

But in the next moment, the Doctor burst back into motion. He pulled away and spun around the console, flicking switches, turning dials, hammering the mallet. The time rotor flickered and spun. His eyes were wide, a little frantic maybe. “We’ve got to get moving. Save everyone we can.”

He flipped through screens on the monitor, then paused. “Hold on.” His brow furrowed in a look of intense concentration. “There’s something else going on.”

“Like what?” Jack stepped up to his side and looked over his shoulder.

“It’s the sun,” the Doctor said. “The face of it. It’s changing.”

“Changing how?”

“Shifting. Phasing. The radiation isn’t steady. Jack, this doesn’t match a supernova. It’s—it’s—“

“It’s what?”

“There’s something I’m missing. Missing, that’s me. Gone. Lost. Lost in the thicket. God, I’m thick.” His voice was rising as he grew more agitated, his hands dancing against his skull.

Jack grinned. He could almost watch the cogs in the Doctor’s head turning. 

“Gah!” the Doctor grimaced. “What looks like a supernova, but isn’t one?”

Jack shook his head at the riddle. “No idea.”

“We don’t have time for this.” The Doctor really looked like he might pull out his hair now.

Jack looked around at the console, wondering what he could do—but there was so much he didn’t understand about what the Doctor was seeing. The only thing he could do was help shut down the plants, manually. “Doctor, we could split up,” he decided. “You go check out these readings and send me into the Baluca plant.”

The Doctor’s face lit up as Jack’s heart sank. “Split up!” The Doctor said, “That’s it!” His fingers were flying over the keyboard, expanding the view on his screen. “The asteroids were splitting up. Remember I said we had a strange orbit?” He peered at the screen of specks surrounding them, the asteroids of the solar system. 

“Right,” Jack answered, prompting him, curious now and looking over his shoulder.

“There!” yelled the Doctor. “Right there, a massive energy field embedded in the asteroid belt. But it’s not a planet. Not an asteroid. What are you?” His brow furrowed in concentration. “Oh, yes! You’re a space ship!” 

Jack smiled. He loved this part—watching the Doctor pull insights out of the air and light up when he found the answer. And he really was brilliant—his companions could only hold on for the ride and wait for the Doctor to explain. 

So Jack asked the question. “What kind of space ship?” 

“Harvesters,” the Doctor answered, his smile fading and his face grim.

Disappointed, Jack shook his head. “No. Can’t be,” he said. “They don’t harvest humans, at least in this century. It’s forbidden.”

“Not humans, Jack!” the Doctor’s voice was rising, upset. “Think about it. Harvesters breed other creatures to feed off the energy. We’ve seen a spike in solar energy.” 

“They’re farming something in the sun?” Jack said doubtfully.

“I’ll need a closer look. I don’t quite know. But first—“ He took a deep breath and looked at Jack, his voice suddenly terribly calm. “You’re right. We’ll have to split up.”

“All right, Doc.” 

“Ready for some more explosions?” The Doctor raised his eyebrows with a manic grin.

Jack grinned back. “You bet.”

“Then, let’s go!” He pulled the lever, and the Tardis clattered to a landing at the Baluca Nuclear Plant, with a whirr and a whoosh.


	8. In Solar Orbit/ Baluca Power Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack tries to shut down the next nuclear plant alone, while the Doctor investigates the strange ship.

Kira came running into the console room, just pulling on her coat, when the Tardis jolted to a stand still. “We landed?” she asked. She flipped her hair out of the coat until it draped over her shoulders, and she looked ready to dash off out the door. 

“Jack’s going alone,” the Doctor told her.

She opened her mouth, but Jack stepped in. “I’ll see you later,” he said, with a small salute. It was easier than Goodbye. He’d do his duty, no matter what the cost, and he turned and strode out the door before the conversation went further. 

Kira watched him leave, with a dread settling in her gut. “We can’t let him do this alone!” 

The Doctor ducked his head, fiddling with the controls, resetting the coordinates. “He can take care of himself,” he told Kira, though he could still feel the sickening crack of Jack’s vertebrae as he’d jolted them into place. 

“Because that went so well the last time!" 

But the door was already shut, and the Doctor didn’t answer. He just threw her a manic grin and reached for her hand. “Hold on tight!” 

She gripped hold of the railing and his fingers just in time, as the Tardis lurched and spun again. Her hazel eyes glowed with a bit of fear, and the small wrinkle lines on her forehead were pronounced with worry. The Doctor held her look, smiling the whole way until they jolted into another stand still, and then he pulled her down the stairs. “Allons-y!”

She followed behind. “Where are we going?!” 

Her hand felt so very small as he squeezed it in his own palm. Without answering, he led her down the corridor, and into a room with picture windows arching up to the ceiling. The window filters blocked certain wavelengths, darkening the sun and showing the twirling, fiery patterns in its surface. 

“There’s your star.” The Doctor pointed out the window as Kira gaped at the sight. “The energy signature’s showing radiation patterns growing much faster than we expected.” He stared determinedly at the star, as if the swirling flame would open all the answers to his brain full of questions. 

“Why?”

“Quite right-–why? How?" he asked. And then, because maybe she could see something he'd missed, "What do you see?”

They stood, staring at the star as it burned in white and orange and red. Its surface was covered in flares that arced out across the surface and out into space. Suddenly one white-hot fireball burst toward them. Kira gasped and sprang back, her heart thundering as the flare broke around the Tardis harmlessly. She almost tripped over the Doctor’s foot, but he caught her, with his hands on her shoulders. 

“It’s all right,” he said softly. “It’s shielded. The flames can’t get through.” 

She was still breathing heavily, “Oh, god.”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he smiled over her head, still holding her shoulders. He could smell her hair, the scaley strands of it brushing his hands.

“It’s incredible,” she breathed, entranced. “All those colours. I’ve seen photos and heat maps of stars, but nothing like this.”

The Doctor reached toward the wall control panel to flip a switch. “The window’s filtering the light,” he said, then switched on a different filter. The colors changed, darkening further, showing tiny fiery flurries spinning through the roiling flares. “Oh, look at you!” the Doctor peered down. “All those little bits and pieces, wiggling just there!” 

“I’ve never seen fire like it,” she breathed, in a way that made him smile again. He moved his hands back over her shoulders, letting her hair brush his skin again–-the strands were wiry and strong, different from human hair. 

“That isn’t fire,” he explained. “It’s not moving like flame–-it’s got to be a species, swimming in the radiation of stars. Sunfish! They thrive on the fire, expand it, make it, well–-” he broke off, lifting his hands and rubbing it across his neck as the pieces fell in place in his head. The fish, swimming in the star, would excite its energy, cause the flares, and eventually cause a supernova.

“They’re making the sun explode?” she asked.

“I suppose,” the Doctor nodded. “Not their fault, though. They’re a long way from home, those little sun fish.”

“Sunfish,” Kira said, looking off into the star. “I thought they were a myth.” She turned her face up toward him and leaned against him, and the Doctor chuckled. 

“Are there any stories you do believe in?” 

“I’m a scientist,” she replied. “But I’m coming to realize, with you, the universe has far more incredible things than I’ve been led to imagine.” 

She smiled at him, her hazel eyes sparkling a little, reflecting the sun’s light. He held her gaze. Her face was very close to his. They were very comfortable here, together. He could get used to having her as his companion. 

Finally, he sucked in a breath and looked back at the star. The air was heavy with something–-the sound of their breathing, the weight of his hands on her shoulders, and her body, very nearly against him. 

“Can we get rid of them?” she asked then. “Send them home? Save the planet?”

He wished he could give her an easy answer. Wished he didn’t have to watch that little, beautiful flicker of hope in her eyes wither and die. But he was just a Time Lord, not a god. “They were brought here,” he sighed. “By another species that breeds them for fuel and for food. That star, right there, right now, it’s basically a massive engine, broadcasting an insane amount of power. And it’s overheating.”

He could feel the sweat on her brow, the sudden fear as he kept talking. “The Harvesters are right here. They’ve been right under our noses, this entire time,” he said. 

He pressed another button on the wall. The Tardis swung around, facing out toward the planet and asteroids orbiting the star. And over Kira’s shoulder, the Doctor pointed to one small point, shaped like a teardrop instead of a circle. “Look at that parallel parking job!”

“A space craft!” Kira said.

“That’s right, parked at just the right distance to collect the radiation broadcast by the fishes.”

“Doctor,” she turned to him, taking his hand and looking him in the face. “Why are we standing here, talking? Can’t we stop them?”

He gestured toward the boiling, shining planets and asteroids, unable to keep the grin from his face. “When else will you get a chance to see all of this?”

“Well,” she glanced outside, “It is beautiful, but–-"

“I needed a closer look,” he explained. “Now, we can go talk to them.”

“Just talk?” she asked, “And you think they’ll just, what? Say sorry and leave?”

“Could be!” he said, his eyes wide and twinkling. “I’ve got a plan.” 

He wiggled his eyebrows-–and she trusted him, right then. Even though time and again he’d made mistakes, nearly gotten them locked up or dead, she couldn’t help it. She followed him back to the Tardis control room, and soon they were rushing through space again, zig-zagging around the asteroids and jumping their way through to the Harvesters’ ship–-grinning at each other the whole way.

\--

**Baluca Power station**

Jack wished to high hell he’d found a gas mask on the Tardis, as he crawled through air that practically bristled with debris and smoke. He’d pulled a shirt off a dead man and tied it around his nose and mouth to help filter the air. To get to the reactor, though, he still had to slink along the ground. 

He was armed with a giant fire extinguisher and a basic tool kit, plus his usual weapons (which the Doctor didn’t know about), but they weren’t going to be nearly enough. In the distance, turbines still rumbled and there were men shouting. Jack’s heart pounded in his chest, and he felt like he was breathing through a pile of rocks.

The crackling static of a voice comm. nearby caught his attention, and Jack followed it until he saw the pipes and gauges surrounding the turbines of the plant. Amidst the rubble and machinery were lumps that looked like bodies, fallen on the ground and slumped over the equipment. Jack looked around and saw nothing dangerous. He suspected there must be something toxic in the air, and the men had died by gas or smoke inhalation. Pulling the fabric tightly over his mouth, Jack held his breath and then walked in to investigate.

One man had fallen beside a large set of pipes, presumably trying to shut them off when he collapsed. Jack wrapped his arms around the giant valve wheel and then hesitated. Did it need to turn clockwise or anti-clockwise? He turned it to the right, clockwise-–by Earth standards, tightening it and sealing it off. The gauge dropped, showing no pressure. It was sealed. 

His lungs were burning, needing air, and it wasn’t long before his body would rebel and take a great heaving breath. Jack grabbed the still-crackling voice comm. off the man’s ear and stumbled back up the hill, sucking in a breath as he reached the top. His lungs were raw and ached, and he felt dizzy. He dropped his hands to his knees, lowering his head to let blood rush in, as he took heaving breaths of the cleaner air closer to the ground.

When his heart settled down, he held the communicator: “This is Captain Jack Harkness of the Tardis Rescue Crew. Anyone out there still alive? Over.”

Just static. An unintelligible voice, but then static. There was someone alive-–if he could only find them, maybe they could help him figure out how to shut down the plant. He wished he’d taken a better look through the blueprints from the Tardis, before he’d rushed out of there like a brave fool. He tried again. “This is Jack Harkness. Who am I speaking to? Where are you? Over.”

Nothing. He looked around. A building burned nearby, and more smoke rose from the tall reactors as well. He pushed in further toward smoke and flames. Just short of the building, he stumbled to a halt. It was dangerous to run forward blindly, but suddenly there was a brilliant idea in his head. He held the communicator over his vortex manipulator, tracking the voice signal. Then he held his breath, pressed the button, and let the hopper do the work.


	9. Harvesters / Baluca Power Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor takes Kira to confront the strange visitors to her solar system. Jack faces problems in the next nuclear site but has unexpected help.

The Doctor and Kira stumbled out of the Tardis into a room lined with metal, corrugated walls, rumbling with the noise of engines. Pipes lined the floor and ceiling, and there were stacks of metal crates. One of the walls was bare and pulsed with white light. The Doctor stood looking at the shining wall with awe. “Containment chamber,” he told Kira. “It’s like a giant battery, storing energy, or maybe processing it into a food source. We’re at the heart of the ship.”

“These beasties eat energy?”

“Well,” said the Doctor, “They’re more like sponges absorbing water, but yes. They don’t use carbohydrates and proteins like we do. They grow the sunfish to process the direct energy they need--then they collect it here.”

Kira gaped at the wall. “Non-carbon-based life, then?”

“Nope,” the Doctor grinned. 

Kira turned away and kept walking down the hall, but a strange feeling was nagging her. If they were silicon or some other life form, how did they survive on a ship that looked so much like any other space ship, and had a breathable atmosphere?

They found a doorway at the end of the hall, and she opened it but found only an enclosed space. “Get in!” urged the Doctor. 

Kira just looked in to the shadows–-“It’s only a closet!”

The Doctor stepped past her, taking her hand-–“Come along!” He pulled her into the shadowed room, and she felt a wind sucking them forward. The closet expanded and became a corridor. “Gravity shaft!” explained the Doctor. “This ship uses gravity fields, like an elevator!”

They were deposited into a long room buzzing with noise. Kira stumbled out and steadied herself on a railing. Down a long, open room, she saw control panels with gauges and dials like an air ship, and large windows looking out on only darkness. Here, too, the walls and ceilings were made of metal, lined with pipes and odds and ends. 

Finally, floating toward them, she noticed some type of robot or creatures. They were amorphous blobs, moving slowly and gathering around herself and the Doctor. At first she only saw only a few, but as they moved closer, she saw several more, and then more--at least 20. They didn’t have faces to speak of, and their skin looked raw and blistered like a fresh burn victim’s. They looked melted and oozed, closing in on them.

“What are they? Are they supposed to look like that?” she asked the Doctor, but he wasn’t paying attention. He was spinning, looking around the room. 

“You’re a long way from home!” he called to the creatures.

They vibrated, with a swishing noise in response. Kira shivered.

“Do you have a fishing license?” called the Doctor. “Because unless I’m mistaken, you’ve dumped hazardous stock in that star without permission from the local authorities!” 

The rumbling sound continued, making Kira’s skin crawl. The creatures were making it, maybe talking, like a language.

“Who am I? Good question!” The Doctor answered the air. “But you should know that by now!”

“You can speak to them?” Kira asked. “And understand them?”

“Oh yes,” he said, aside to her. Then, to the room, he continued, “You’re energy creatures, and I’ve parked my ship in your storage room! The energy of the Time Vortex, shifting through your ship, and you don’t know who I am!? That’s right, I’ll wait. Stop and take a look.” 

The beasts seemed to bubble and hiss around them, changing from a soft yellow to a dark, blistery red. 

“Is this your plan?” Kira whispered at the Doctor.

“Not exactly,” the Doctor answered back.

“So when does your plan kick in?”

“The plan is, well,” he said, hesitating, “we improvise.”

“That’s your plan!?” she answered, “to improvise?” 

“Yes,” he hissed in a loud whisper. “Just keep quiet. It’s working!”

“What did you tell them? What does that mean?” Kira hissed at him.

“It means I’m a time traveller,” said the Doctor, still talking to those creatures burbling and bubbling in front of them. “Specifically Time Lord. The very last.” His voice was bitter as he continued. “I won, and I’ll win this too. Oh yes!”

Kira looked around. The creatures were clearly responding to him, but it was nothing like any language she knew of. They shook and rumbled, like a crackling fire or the ocean rumbling–-like the energy in mass forces of nature, but unlike any creature she’d ever heard of. And the Doctor was still responding. “I channel energy fields, and that’s all you’re made of. You should be running away!”

They were shaking and the Doctor was trembling too-–but not in fear. He looked angry and powerful, and even Kira felt a little afraid of him. “Ah!” he said, “But you don’t want to leave this massive energy source behind, do you?”

The beasts shook and bubbled and growled in a way that imagined to be _No._

“So I’ll make it easy for you!” the Doctor continued, as Kira clutched on his arm. “You’re killing off the people on this planet, and I won’t stand for that. So Kira,“ he turned to her suddenly, taking her hand off his elbow, and squeezing her fingers, “as the representative from your planet, what do you propose we do with these Harvesters?”

She looked at him, confused and suddenly scared. “What can we do?” 

“As punishment for murder,” he prompted her. “How do you treat people on your planet?”

“We’d put them behind bars,” she answered. “At least until they’re no longer a threat. But–-can you do that?”

“Oh, yes!” He grinned, his face lighting up. “You’re brilliant! And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

The oozy blobs seemed to bounce and sway, closing in around them like threatening herd animals, and Kira cringed against the Doctor. As if oblivious to the threat, he just kept talking. 

“Your species existed nearly since time began, since energy was created. So, you know what’s coming and what’s been done. Energy can be contained, shielded, controlled–-“

They seemed to growl at him. The Doctor’s voice dropped, low and determined. “And I’ve put an entire era of Time behind lock and key-–the whole bloody Time War. A few of you is nothing to me.”

“Doctor,” Kira said, next to him, trying to pull him out of his furious shouting, and get him to look at her and pay attention to how these creatures kept moving a little closer, rumbling a little louder. 

“Behind a time lock, they won’t be able to touch this universe,” the Doctor told her. “That sun’s still going to blow and destroy a planet–-but I can slow that down. I can pull them out of orbit, back to where they belong.”

The creatures’ hissing in Kira’s head seemed like they were shouting. She cowered against the Doctor. 

“Oh, just you try and stop me!” he fumed. 

His hand trembled on Kira’s, and she squeezed his palm in hers, trying to calm him down. “Doctor! We’re surrounded. We have to get out of here!” 

The Doctor grinned, “Oh, but it’s their choice!” And he turned back to the creatures, brandishing his screwdriver. “You need those skin suits you’re wearing to contain your energy-–but they’re already blistering and cracking–-they’re not strong enough to contain you.”

He let go of Kira’s hand and jumped up on a chair. “And I have a sonic screwdriver!” He waved it in front of them. “One touch of this button and your space suits crack, your ship disintegrates, and you evaporate into the universe!”

“Oh, god!” Kira gasped. If the creatures blew up, so would Kira and the Doctor. He’d really gone mad and was going to get them both killed, this time! 

But he just kept ranting, raving, and challenging them. “You can die right here, right now, and take us out with you,” he announced. “Or I take you somewhere safe, where you can find as much energy as you need without destroying any more planets!”

The Doctor glanced at Kira, and winked his reassurance, looking triumphant. But the rumbling increased to a thunder all around them, and the creatures seemed to blister and ooze. Kira thought she saw a bright light start to pour out of one of them, and shouted, “Too late! Doctor!”

He saw it too, and jumped down and grabbed her hand, his face suddenly pale. “Run!” he called, pulling her back down the corridor. “Kira, Run!”

\---------

Jack hopped. His new location was searing with heat. But he was still breathing, still standing, and not dead again–-yet. Thank goodness for small favours.

Thick smoke swirled around, pulling into his lungs, and he started coughing. He ducked down to get below the smoke, to suck in more oxygen. The air was a little easier lower to the ground. 

Jack shoved the comm. back in his ear. “Hello? Hello? Anyone here?” he called, loud enough to be heard in the area nearby.

“Over here,” a weak, raspy voice answered him, off to his right near the smoke. The comm. simply crackled–-dead, he supposed.

He rushed toward the voice. Finally, kicking and stumbling over rubble, he found a small form, a woman, slumped over a row of pipes. She was shivering. 

One look at her glazed eyes, slashed body, and trembling hands, and Jack knew she didn’t have long. She was bleeding out from cuts, and bruising, and he suspected more damage internally. She reached out for him with a weak, dirty hand. “I got out,” she said, struggling for breath. “The hydrogen blast. Something fell. Couldn’t. Breathe.”

“You’ll be alright,” he said, lifting her down to the ground to a more comfortable position. He took her hand. “I’m here to help. Tell me how to shut this place down.”

She breathed. “The system’s too hot,” she said. “Burning through the shielding." She started coughing, clutching her stomach. 

“All right,” Jack said, “All right. Tell me what to do.”

“These valves out here...turn on the emergency coolant flow,” she said, and breathed out a list of shaky instructions on what valves to switch, and how to turn on the backup cooling system. Jack could hardly hear her over the rushing sounds around them-–water in the pipes, flame, and a wind picking up with a roar. 

But he rushed over to the valves nearby, dodging fallen rubble and debris as he went. The valves were stuck, tight, but finally budged inch by inch. The muscles of his arms burned as he twisted, and he felt the friction and the heat of the metal blistering his palms. One by one, valve by valve, he moved down the line, checking the gauges and making the adjustments as he went. Pressure steady, still in the clear. And he could hear the difference–-they were no longer seething and steaming with the heat, just whooshing along more quietly. Jack breathed in relief.

When he rushed back to the woman, her eyes were fluttering and he could hear her moaning softly in pain. “Not long now,” she whispered, as he took her hand and brushed hair from her face.

“What’s your name?” 

“Analika,” she said, a weak smile on her lips, her face white as the concrete around them. “I’m not important."

“You are,“ Jack said. “You’re so important, Analika. You may have saved other people’s lives.” He could hear himself, sounding like the Doctor, who always reassured humans how brilliant, and how important they were. 

She smiled, faintly, and closed her eyes, and he stayed with her a minute longer. He wouldn’t forget her name, he promised himself. She was going to die a hero, at least.


	10. The Time Lock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor tries to initiate the time lock, but it's more dangerous than he wants to admit.

Kira felt heat radiating from the aliens behind her as the Doctor pulled her back toward the Tardis. They ran down the gravity shaft. On the other side, she stumbled as the gravity tilted and shifted to the other wall. But the Doctor steadied her and somehow they kept running, tumbling, putting one foot in front of the other. 

The heat from the energy containment burned over her skin, ready to start blistering and burning. She glanced at the Doctor—running in front of her now, as fast as he could. He didn’t think they’d make it either. Somehow they did, pushing their way inside the Tardis doors and slamming it behind them, shutting out the white heat. For a moment, Kira couldn’t see anything for the white light that had blinded her, and she panted for breath, clinging to the railing. 

As her vision cleared, she looked up, and the Doctor was already at the console. With a shout, “Geronimo!” he launched the Tardis back into space. 

Kira simply stood and watched him work frantically. Her heart was in her throat, wondering whether the entire world outside had already been vaporized. The Doctor was serious and concentrated on his controls. 

“And, boom!” the Doctor shouted, banging the mallet on the console and pressing a button. “Kira! This lever!” he called, looking over at her. “Help me!”

She rushed over to him, as he yelled, “Pull that down. Now!” 

And she did, as hard as she could, and he pulled another dial around. A beep echoed through the Tardis, and it wheezed and shook.

Suddenly, a grin lit up the Doctor’s face, telling Kira all she needed to know: it was all right. Her planet was still there and their sun too. There was no way the Doctor could be smiling like that if his friend Jack was being vaporized.

“Oh, thank god.” She looked down at the console and tried to remember how to breathe.

“They’re contained!” he announced. “Time Lock—the temporary kind. Now, to relocate them into another star.”

“Right now?”

His smile was tight. “Well, we do still have some fish to fry!” He wiggled his eyebrows, and ran around the console again. 

“What!?”

“We need to get those sunfish out,” he explained. “I’m building a static, extemporal field electro-magnetically bonded to the Tardis.”

“What?” Kira had always been smart, well-studied, knew some physics and chemistry and telecommunications—but the way the Doctor talked, he was either brilliant or completely making shit up.

“It’s like a time-locked net to tow them to a new star,” he explained.

“Right.” She swallowed. Her heart was still pounding, but as she watched him flit to and fro and swing around the console, she started feeling useless. “What can I do?” she asked finally. 

He looked up immediately. “Tell Andross--everyone on board should sit down! There’s going to be turbulence. Shaking, bouncing, roller-coaster ride.” His eyes flickered across the time rotor. “There’s a chance—no, don’t tell him that. Say it's all just for fun. A bit of wibbly-wobbly spinning, for the sake of spinning!”

“Don't tell him what?”

“Well--for example, it's not risky,” he said, meeting her gaze. “Not at all. No way that releasing the Harvesters when they’ve already begun to vaporise could blow the entire ship apart.”

"So why--?"

"They deserve a chance to live." His smile faded, and he looked perfectly serious, and tired.

“And we don't?" She looked up sharply, but saw how his face was locked down. There were circles around his eyes, and a bit of sadness. He didn't want to kill off those little sun-fish, even if they had to risk their own lives to save them. She sighed. "Doctor--just tell me, what’s the probability? Of the explosion?” 

He smiled, thinking she was tough, all right--and a scientist. Oh, he liked scientists, who liked numbers. "Ohhh--only about maybe 45.82 percent?” he grimaced. “Unless they break the lock—then, oh, I don't know, could be, maybe, just probably, a little higher than 99.99 percent? But no use worrying about that now--just tell everyone to sit down and hold tight!”

She gaped at him for a moment, then found her voice. “Sit down and hold on. Right.” She turned to go but his voice held her back.

“And Kira?”

“Yeah?” 

“Tell them we’ll be fine.” His brown eyes looked at her, and his lips quirked into a smile. "Trust me."

She grinned back, despite herself, even though she barely believed him. She could see the trust that he placed in the universe—he’d been through worse odds before, she guessed. The least she could do was trust him back. "All right." She nodded and ran to the other room.

The Doctor watched her till the door closed behind her, and then he picked up his phone. Fumbling with the buttons, he tried typing a text. Silly 21st century technology—all these impossibly tiny buttons that were too small for his fingers. “Making a detour—meet me 0400—if no Tardis, use ur hopper go home.” He inserted Jack’s phone number.

Then he stared at his message, torn. Jack deserved to know the Tardis might not return from his errand. But he also knew—and Jack would too-- there was no hope for him to jump home. The 21st century was simply too far for that little wristwatch device of his. Jack could get off-world to safety if he didn’t wait too long for the Tardis. The Doctor owed him that much—a way out. He clicked the send button, just as Kira came back in the room. 

“Sit down, there,” he pointed to the chairs. “Hold on now, as tight as you can.”

She bounced into the chair, and he grinned, clutching the controls as he launched them out of the galaxy. “Here we go!”

The Tardis lurched and flipped through the Vortex, gravity sucking them in all directions as they pulled the netting behind them. The Doctor tried to regulate the pressure to keep their ride steady. But the weight of their load, all those Time-locked creatures, was banging around the Vortex like a lumpy bag being towed behind them. It was probably shifting the electro-chemical fields of the Vortex, and pushing energy out of the rifts. The Torchwood team in Cardiff might be getting some unexpected surprises--not to mention the other rifts across time and space. 

But he couldn’t do anything about it. The Doctor was being thrown around too—first to one side, then the other, then he could no longer hold on and found himself reaching out to grab hold of the railing, then the chairs. “Yippeee!” he yelled, and grasped for Kira’s hand. She reached out, looking terrified, and he gripped her fingers and laughed. “Almost there!” 

Finally the Tardis finally lurched to a halt, and he helped her stand up. She wasn’t laughing with him, but she looked relieved, and that was a good sign. “What a ride!” he said, feeling exhilarated. 

“We made it!” Now she looked thrilled. 

The Doctor felt his stomach sink and didn’t answer. She didn’t realize--the danger was still to come. The Harvesters had been on the verge of exploding when he'd locked them down. If he timed it wrong, when he released the lock, those creatures could burst out in every direction, disintegrating the Tardis and everything in it. He’d chosen a relatively isolated star system for this project, just in case the star couldn’t hold their power—at least they would only destroy the Tardis, and no populated planets or passersby.

He reached and took her hand. “Come on. You’ll want to see this.” He led Kira back to the room with the gorgeous windows, and pointed out at the Harvester ship floating in the star. “I’m going to release the lock now. Set them free. With luck, they’ll be pulled into the star, and live out their lives in peace.”

She eyed him. “And without luck?”

He smiled down at her, and put his hands on her shoulders. He looked her in the eye, trying to keep his voice quiet and reassuring. “In case I don’t have another chance to say it, you were brilliant. Really, you were. And, thank you.”

She stared at him, her eyes going wide and terrified, as she realized the danger. He kissed her hand and kept holding her gaze, even as he lifted his other hand up to the lever that would release the extemporal stasis fields.

“Wait,” she said, her voice choked, and she pulled close to him. “Thank you too, Doctor. For everything.” She gave him a quick kiss to the cheek--he turned his head at the last moment, and she shut her eyes tight. 

He breathed deep and he raised a hand to her neck, pulling her close against him as he dropped the lever. Her shoulder was warm under his palm, and she pressed her face into his coat. He looked out the window, holding his breath. He felt the hitch of time and its release. The sudden hiss of energy in both stars as the creatures came free. Dark points of light became clear, bursting into white-hot, blinding blasts that expanded out in either direction. 

Then it was gone, dissolved into the light as the star went on burning, red and orange, with purple and white flames swimming on its surface. The Doctor felt himself groan in relief, and Kira responded, lifting her face and staring at him. 

“Safe,” he said quietly, “We’re safe. Well,” he shrugged, "You know me. Safety's my middle name, only it's pronounced more like Danger, and sometimes, Warning! But we're safe, for now."

“Oh, thank god,” and she blinked back tears, pulling away from him. "For a moment there, I thought the universe was going to have a serving of Fish Sticks and Fried Doctor."

"With a side of Toasted Tardis!" he laughed. "But they'll have to settle for fresh fish, and still-dancing Doctor!" He grinned triumphantly, and turned away from her to head back to the console room. 

But she took his arm, forcing him to turn back around, and she pressed herself against him. He could feel her erratic heart beats, her ragged breath--she was still upset, still trying to calm down. He pressed his cheek against her hair as she steadied her breathing. Maybe he’d been wrong, he thought. Maybe he should take her back to her people, where she was safe. Maybe she wasn't cut out for this, for the way he traveled. 

When she pulled away again and looked back up at him, she was smiling, her cheeks red with emotion and her eyes still wet. He smiled and wiped her face with gentle fingers. “Before we go back,” he told her, “We’re going to drop off our passengers somewhere. Take them to safety. A holding planet.” 

Kira nodded. “My cousin can arrange something for more refugees.”

He nodded. “Good. It will be temporary. Jack’s team, on Earth, is looking for other planets where they can settle permanently. Their own place to rebuild.” 

“That’s probably a good idea," she agreed. "My cousin’s on Doralisa, and it’s really not big enough—sooner or later, there’s going to be fighting if they have an influx of people from our solar system. Civil War.”

“Right," he looked far off. "I remember the Middle East on Sol 3, Earth. But now, we’ve got to get back, and quick. Jack’s waiting.” If Jack hopped before he could get back, well, the Doctor might never be able to find him. 

Kira saw the way his eyebrows creased, the firm set of his lips, his suddenly pale cheeks as he mentioned his friend. With that, he turned and all but fled from the room, hardly looking to see whether she was following him. Kira rushed after him toward the console room, with one last glance back to the star still boiling white hot in the window.


	11. The Core of Baluca Power Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of action-packed drama, as Jack tries to shut down yet another nuclear plant. And then some comedy, as the Doctor shoos his houseguests off his ship. And another character death warning: my main goal is apparently to kill Jack more in this story than Moffat killed Rory in S5-6... ;)

Jack ran through the streets toward the main reactor, the humming around him growing steadily louder. There were fires eating at buildings and equipment along the way. All he could do was hoist a fire extinguisher and spray them out. 

Nothing he could do to fix the damage. The whole plant was on a downward spiral. All he could do was postpone its destruction. When the extinguisher was spent, he chucked it. It had been heavy to carry, and he could run faster this way. Finally, he made it to the main building. Smoke was rising and the machinery sounded louder, more muddled, and there was a bad feeling in Jack’s gut. 

Jack pushed his nerves aside and shoved his way through a heavy door. He ran up clanging metal stairs, passing boilers and turbines, and walls mounted with pipes and insulation and valves. The machinery thrummed hot and loud around him, vibrating through his chest. 

His phone was pressed tight against his thigh in his pocket, and he could still see the Doctor’s words in his head, _if no Tardis, use ur hopper go home._ Everytime he thought about the Doctor unable to make it back, he felt like he was choking on the air. It was too late to make it out safely, this time. He’d already used the vortex manipulator, and its battery was drained. There was one chance in five it would accurately jump him back to where he’d left the Tardis. After that, one in fifty that he’d still have the juice to get off-world safely, if the Doctor didn’t return. 

And there was no way he was going to jump off-world, without trying first to get back to the Tardis. In the circumstances, walking toward an unstable nuclear reactor made perfect sense. He pulled himself forward, around melted rebar and shards of concrete and pipes. Jack clutched the ripped cotton rag against his mouth as he tried to breathe through the black smoke that swirled in the air.

He passed through a doorway. The sound changed, separating from a dull roar into a high-pitched metal whining and the low growl of the motors. But there was a sound between all of that, clear round vowels like humans shouting. It must be part of the machinery, he thought-–there couldn’t be anyone here. 

Jack kept moving forward. Then the shouts cut through the noise–-words-–a familiar dialect of Standard Galactic. “One. Two. Three–-Go!” 

There was a hissing of water and a ricochet like gunshots, and Jack suddenly couldn’t see through the foam in his eyes. He lifted an arm to his face and ran toward the sound, coughing as the wetness hit his lungs. 

“Who’s that?” Someone was shouting in alarm. Jack rushed toward the voice. “What the hell you doing, man? You crazy, or what?!”

Jack laughed. “I sure am!” He was blind, he was stranded in a nuclear reactor approaching meltdown, and there were people here?! Finally as the haze in his vision cleared, he saw a heavy-set man lumbering toward him. Jack stumbled toward him, up some stairs. There he saw three other figures in full-body, white radiation suits, working with spanners and valve keys and tools. A turbine hummed along behind them. 

He blinked into the light, and realized sunlight was flooding around them, glancing off their white suits and the metal railings. He’d thought they were indoors, and he looked around, disoriented. He was on a hill, looking over swimming pools. Jack stopped in his tracks, utterly confused.

Then he realized-–the ceiling was gone. He was on a balcony looking over coolant pools for the spent reactor rods that once had been indoors. The hill he stood on was a raised floor, scattered with concrete rubble. Insulation along the walls was ripped, and there were cracked pipes, spraying foamy water out around them. 

Jack suddenly realized his feet were wet and the foam was sticking in soapy drifts to the wool of his coat. Breathing was difficult. This must be part of the cooling system, he thought, but somehow he couldn’t focus on anything anymore because the ceiling was closing in again. Darkness was closing around him and the work crew. Then the ground was coming up, heavy against his arm. 

“Hey, over here,” the man was calling. “Man down!” And then in exasperation, to himself, he was mumbling, “Where did this one come from?”

Jack’s senses spun out and then came back, his stomach whirling and vision foggy. He tried to sit up, coughing, and pain throbbed through his arm where he’d fallen. The man leaned over him. Jack got a close look at a wiry grey beard, intense brown eyes, and the hairy hand held out to him. 

“Hello,” Jack said, as he grasped the man’s palm and staggered to his feet. “And who are you!”

“I’m Juri!” The man clapped him on the back and turned back to the others. “Time to evacuate! The air here, it ain’t safe!” He pointed to another fallen worker on the ground and addressed his colleagues. “Carry her out–-let’s go!” 

“Wait. Juri!” Jack stopped the man before he started walking out. “Are the reactors shut down?” 

Juri looked surprised, his face was red with the oozing blisters of burns, and his white suit was ripped and soiled. 

“Cooled for now,” Juri shrugged, looking in toward the reactor. “We’ve done all we could. Unless you’re immortal, you’d just get yourself killed in there.” He shook his head. 

“Well,” Jack smirked. “Tell me what needs doing, then get yourselves to safety.” 

“Who are you, handsome?” Juri stopped and took a moment to really look at Jack--his gaze falling over Jack’s coat--and then he frowned, peering deeper in Jack’s eyes. “Man out of time?” 

“Just here to help,” Jack nodded. “I can buy you some time.”

Juri shook his head in disbelief. “You sound mighty sure of yourself, my friend.” And he gave Jack a list of instructions, which basically boiled down to: make sure the control rods are in place in the reactor to slow the nuclear reaction, fill the tank with water to cool it, release pressure in the system. Jack nodded, and let the complex directions file into his brain-–trying not to think about them, just memorize them, so he could call them back later word for word. “You got that?” Juri finally asked.

“Sure hope so!” Jack answered. “Wish me luck!”

“If you make it out, come find me. I owe you at least a drink!” Juri grasped Jack’s hand, shaking vehemently. “Good luck!”

“You too,” Jack said. He watched as Juri jumped back over the rubble and followed his crew out the door, his movements loose and quick despite his husky frame. 

Jack took a breath, then turned back around, into the darkness and toward the steamy core of the plant. He fumbled his way through and around the machinery, slowing down to give his eyes time to adjust. He swore as he tripped over something and reached his hand out for balance. His palm hit something metal and sharp, cutting open his skin. The sting shot up his arm, and he swore again, more loudly. 

Pressing his other hand against the burning gash, he stopped in his tracks and tried to think. He called up the instructions he’d memorized. Two rights and a left. He swung into motion again. This valve here. Twist two turns, or till the pressure’s right. 

Damn. Jack had the vague sensation of warm liquid on the equipment. His palm was bleeding against the machinery, and his hand was hot and throbbing. 

Never mind the sensation, he thought, just get the job done. That regulator there. Check the relief valves. Flip the left-most switch and the third one in. And onward. His hand was hot and going numb. He was dizzy again. It didn’t matter. One more switch.

He flipped the last switch and the wave of pressure blasted against him. It ignited, roiling flames grasping hold of him. He’d expected this but hadn’t thought about it. This would vent the system. There could be sparks, and they could ignite when released to the air. It would cool down the reactor. Some part of his brain was still explaining the process again, even as the flames engulfed him, his body devoured by heat. People would have more time to get to safety. The fire would die down soon, the reactor intact. Somewhere outside himself, he could hear screaming. 

Jack came to life again, coughing and spluttering. There was barely enough oxygen in the air. His mouth was full of dust and rocks, and his nostrils were coated in soot. His back was stiff from laying on debris. 

Jack lifted his hand up to his face. Through the dark ash and dirt on his skin, he could see the gash in his palm had healed. Death–-it was like regeneration, without the new face. He was grateful. "Thanks, Rose," he muttered. 

Grimacing and groaning with the pain still coursing in his arm, Jack pried himself out from under debris. He stood, but his lungs were still raspy and burning with smoke in the air. He half-stumbled, half-crawled out to where sunlight splattered over the metal railing nearby. The men he’d seen were long gone. Probably they had seen the flashing flames and were certain that Jack was dead. 

He looked around for a fire extinguisher, and fought his way over to put out the remaining small fires licking the equipment here and there. Smoke and foam were still drifting up into the air, catching the rays of light shining down over the rubble, when Jack finally remembered he had somewhere else to be. He looked down at his wrist and found the vortex manipulator still attached. His fingers worked the keys, redialling the last place he’d jumped from, as his brain considered the odds: 1 in 5 chance to get back to where he’d left the Tardis. 

But Jack couldn’t begin to calculate the odds that the Doctor would be waiting. As he jumped, he thought of Ianto.

\---

_Meanwhile, On the Planet Doralisa, in a Nearby Solar System..._

 

“Out! Out Out Out! Thanks for staying. See you soon! Goodbye! Get out! Things to do!” The Doctor yelled at his passengers, shooing them off his ship like an angry granny disappointed in her grandkids’ behaviour at Christmas. 

Kira stood beside him, getting more and more nervous as she watched the people leaving the Tardis. She smiled at them, told them they’d be okay, anything to reassure them. They looked annoyed at the Doctor, generally confused, and completely lost and despondent. They milled around the field, waiting for instructions.

She knew the Doctor cared for their welfare. He was just worried about getting back to Jack. She pressed a hand on his arm, to reassure him and remind him of his humanity. 

But he wasn’t human, not at all. He was so strange sometimes, so single-minded. And he seemed to operate on irony: here was the man who could capture aliens, who could put an explosion on hold, who could get right up in the face of a star and not get burnt. Yet he still might not have time to rescue his friend. 

Kira’s cousin was huddled over maps with Andross, showing places the refugees could settle. Safe-houses, abandoned warehouses, hospitals. Kira wasn’t sure if the local governments on this planet even knew about the refugees. The families stood and talked, and crouched in together. Some were staring up at the light sky above them and over the yellow grass of the field. It had been a while since they saw daylight and plants. 

As soon as the last person was off the Tardis, the Doctor shook his arm. Kira didn’t realized she’d been holding it, but she let go, looking up at him. “You too, Kira,” he said. “I’ll come back for you–-if I make it.” 

But Kira shook her head, and pulled him back into the Tardis by his elbow. “I’m not leaving you. Not now.”

His brow furrowed, and he opened his mouth, but hesitated. 

“Maybe not ever,” she said firmly. “Let’s go find your Jack.”

The Doctor didn’t want to waste more time and didn’t argue. He just nodded and went to the console. He typed something in, and they were off. Kira felt her stomach fall. She may have just signed her own death sentence. 

Was it just bravado, insisting to stay with him? She felt special as the Doctor’s companion–-she didn’t want to wait with the others, just to be another refugee. But maybe, she thought, she’d only been feeling high from surviving this far. As if it made her invincible. Now she was pushing her luck. She was shaking. And the Doctor didn’t even notice her. It was too late to take it back. 

The Tardis jolted and whirred, but the landing was steady compared with their recent trips. “There!” the Doctor looked a little relieved, patting the time rotor affectionately. “Gravity’s stabilized without that pesky ship in orbit!” 

He strode to the door and peered out. Everything in front of them was a wreck–-smoke rising from concrete and metal buildings, and debris everywhere. 

“Harkness!” he called, stepping outside. “Captain!”

Kira followed him. “Jack!” she called. “Jack! Where are you?”

They plodded around, kicking up dust from the concrete rubble, watching smoke rise from a building a ways off. The Doctor tried to call Jack’s phone, but eventually just shook his head and tucked his mobile away again–-no answer.

Amidst the brown dust and the grey rubble around them, Kira finally saw a flash of colour-–blue fabric draping over the rocks. She rushed over. Jack’s coat.

It was him, almost blending in with the rocks, his face grey and lips blue. He was shivering, murmuring, but he didn’t budge or respond. “Jack!” she called to him, shaking his shoulders. “Wake up!”


	12. Momentary Lapses in Deep Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor has reservations about continuing their mission.

Kira leaned over Jack, shaking his shoulder. His murmuring had stopped, but he was still shivering, mostly unconscious. He was coated in blood and soot, and his clothes were torn and shredded–-but she couldn’t find any injuries in his skin. 

She looked over her shoulder. The Doctor was kicking around in some piles of rubble, looking hopeless. “Found him! Doctor, over here!”

The Doctor rushed over. “Blimey.” He knelt down and felt for a pulse. “Let’s get him in the Tardis.” 

Kira sucked in a breath and hoisted Jack’s legs in her arms, while the Doctor pulled him up by the shoulders. Jack was too heavy for either of them to lift on their own, she thought. His eyes fluttered, and his head dropped to one side, and the Doctor tried to cushion it against his body as he shuffled along. Step by heavy step, they moved closer to the Tardis. 

“We never should have let him go out here alone,” Kira said. 

The Doctor grunted as they dragged Jack inside, without answering her. “Right here,” he said, lowering Jack onto the metal grating of the Tardis floor. Then he ran a hand against Jack clammy forehead--the Captain was feverish. “Jack. Wake up. Talk to me.” When he didn’t respond, the Doctor slapped his face. “Harkness!”

Kira, watching the Doctor’s face grow darker, knelt and touched his arm. “Move the Tardis somewhere safe,” she said. “I’ll stay with him.”

The Doctor cast a vacant look at her, then nodded and stood up. Kira felt him hovering as she bent over Jack. There was no movement, and his forehead was beaded in sweat. Kira felt for a pulse again, but she could barely find one. “Stay with me, Jack,” she murmured. “You’re safe now. You’ll be fine.”

When she looked around, the Doctor was no longer by her side.

Jack’s clothing was so destroyed and bloody, Kira thought there should be some injury, but she felt along his body, searching, and couldn’t find anything. She knew he could have died and revived, and then been injured again. There could be internal damage, or radiation exposure, possibly even brain damage. She stroked his palm and forehead. He'd been through so much. His lips were nearly blue, and she couldn’t find a pulse any longer. 

The Tardis lurched, and Kira gripped the floor with a gasp. “Doctor!” 

The movement seemed to jolt Jack and he pulled himself up, gasping and coughing with wild blue eyes. Kira leaned forward to him and gripped his shoulder. 

“You’re safe,” she said, reassuring him. “On the Tardis.”

Colour was returning to his cheeks even under the grey powder coating his skin. Jack looked around and grasped her hand on his shoulder, and finally his eyes focused on hers. “You’re beautiful,” he said, breaking into a grin. “Am I ever glad to see you!”

He leaned forward and stroked a hand over her cheek. His eyes were so light blue, and his grin was bright enough to bring electricity to an entire city. No wonder the Doctor loved him, she thought.

“Stop that!” the Doctor growled from above them, but when Kira looked up, she saw that he just looked amused. 

Jack struggled to his feet, almost pulling Kira down in the process, and threw himself on the Doctor. “You came back!”

“Oh yes!” the Doctor’s voice was muffled beneath the flying wool coat and the dust Jack had shuffled up around them. As the smoky air settled and Jack’s shoulders dropped, she could see the two locked around each other. The Doctor’s hands were fisted in folds of Jack’s coat. “Well, couldn’t let you die now-–there’s still work to be done,” he mumbled.

Kira turned away to give them some space and privacy. When she looked back, the Doctor was right behind her, grinning. She smiled back, and he reached out and swept her up in a powerful hug. 

“Thank you, Kira Jenson,” he said, pressing his face in her shoulder, and then he put her down. 

But their grinning at each other was interrupted as Jack cleared his throat. “Doctor. There’s still Meriki Power Station.” 

“Right.” The Doctor turned back to the console, his face solemn. Kira stood beside him, their arms brushing. 

“I’m ready.” Jack’s voice was steel behind them. 

She turned to look at him. His face was still smeared in soot and sweat. “You don’t want to wash up or something?” Kira asked. 

Jack looked at her, and shook himself with a little smirk. “I’m this good-looking already. Why bother?” 

The Doctor threw him a look, then returned to staring at his controls. Kira thought he might launch them directly to the next plant or start spouting off instructions for them. But then he turned around to look at Jack, and she could see the paleness in his cheeks and concern written all over his face. He wasn’t being callous–-just worried. “You’ve done enough. I should take you home.”

Jack looked bemused. “Why now?”

“We already saved three species,” the Doctor said. “You just shut down four nuclear plants. I took the Harvesters and their sunfish to a new solar system. I took Kira’s people to safety. Jack–-that’s mission accomplished.”

Jack glanced at Kira. “Good work. But there’s still people out there.”

“Sure, we can save more lives,” the Doctor continued. He shook his head, and couldn’t quite look Jack in the eye. “But it’s not worth it, if this is another death sentence.”

“You know me,” Jack protested. “Can’t kill me for long. I’m fine.”

“Jack.” The Doctor looked him over. “Everything about you is wrong.”

Jack’s brow furrowed with hurt, but the Doctor kept speaking. “It’s wrong, condemning you to this. To let you die, over and over.”

Jack stepped back and leaned against the railing, looking out across the wide space of the Tardis room. He ran a hand across his mouth, pensively.

The Doctor flicked some switches on the controls. “21st century Cardiff.” He hesitated a moment–-enough to make the statement into a question.

“Don’t,” Jack said, stepping over to him. His shoulders were square again, and he reached out to still the Doctor’s hand. “We can still save lives–-I still want to go in.”

“Jack,” Kira put a hand on his arm. “Maybe you should listen to him.”

He glanced to her, but then his eyes bored into the Doctor’s. “I’m not wrong,” he insisted. “Isn’t this good, if I can save people?” 

The Doctor looked confused. “There are laws of time and space–-"

“There’s exceptions to every law. You taught me that.” 

“You’re definitely an exception!” The Doctor’s look was sharp and angry, but Jack didn’t flinch.

He smirked. “Unique. Not wrong.”

The Doctor looked up at him, with something of a sigh. “Always so sure of yourself.”

Jack was still smiling, flirting now. “You can’t get rid of me.” It was the only way he could think of to lighten the Doctor’s mood. 

“All right,” the Doctor relented, without smiling back. He flicked switches and pulled down the rotor, and the Tardis shifted and swooshed around the planet. “One more station.”


	13. Meriki Power Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack goes alone to the next site, with Kira's help over their comm. systems, but they're in a race against another nuclear meltdown.

Kira and Jack stood at the door of the wardrobe room, watching the Doctor toss about clothing from a dusty, dark corner. Past the racks of clothing, the skirts and dresses and suits and jeans and accessories, past the trunks of hats and mirrors, he’d tucked himself away and was looking for—well, something. They kept casting nervous glances at each other with the same question on their minds: was the Doctor just stalling?

“It’s here somewhere, I swear!” The Doctor's voice floated half-muffled from the corner. “I know I have one. It’s just—where’d it go? We’re the same size, Jack, it should fit.” His words were half-nonsensical.

Finally, Jack rolled his eyes and sauntered over to pull the Doctor out of his costume pile, just as he emerged clutching some lump of red fabric. “Found it!” he crowed, thrusting the puddle in his arms at Jack. “Good thing I never throw anything away!” 

The fabric was rough, plasticky, and Jack held it up. "A space suit?" Well, that explained how they were the same size anyway—not much shape to a space suit. 

“You’ll need this, too,” the Doctor said. There was also a helmet with gas mask. 

“What about you?” Jack asked. “You got a second one in there?”

“Ah.” The Doctor rubbed a hand over his neck. “I’m sorry. The air is too toxic.”

“You can’t go out there,” Jack realized. 

The Doctor just shook his head. “I don’t need to breathe, but it gets in the skin--I’d be regenerating in, oh, eight point four minutes." He glanced at Jack then looked away again. "All that energy will just roll right around you, though.”

Jack nodded. 

“I’ll be monitoring your progress,” the Doctor continued. He pointed to the suit. “We’ll have voice contact. There’s a communicator. If something goes wrong—which it won’t—but if it does, I’ll be there.” He raised his eyebrows, looking Jack straight in the eye. It was a promise. 

"Better get started." Jack took a breath and wasted no time. He bent over to pull the suit over his clothes, trying not to think about what would happen next. 

He just let the Doctor help zip up the suit, then followed him back to the console. Briefly they huddled around the maps of the station, and then Kira went to work looking at its status. Finally, the Doctor fussed over attaching Jack’s helmet. Skinny fingers clipped the straps together, pulled them tight, and lingered a moment near his face. The helmet was pressing down on Jack’s hair and the air inside was stuffy and thick. The Doctor met his eyes. He nodded. Ready. 

“Good luck,” the Doctor said, one hand on his shoulder. 

Jack tried to smile and to nod, but the clunky bulb around his head got in the way. “Let’s do it,” he said instead. With a half-smile, trying to flirt, he added, “I’m counting on you, Doctor.” 

“Yes, well—“ the Doctor rubbed an awkward hand over his neck. “I’m counting on you too, Captain.”

Jack gripped the Doctor's shoulder as a goodbye, then walked out the door before he could trail off to silence or start babbling again. 

The air was thick of black smoke, and he was grateful for the helmet. It muted the deep roar of fires nearby and the machinery still running.

“Jack.” The Doctor’s voice rasped in his ear.

“Receiving, Doctor.”

“I’m pulling up the status details now. Head to your left—a big square building with some numbers painted on the side. There’s no other signs of life out there.” 

“None at all?” Jack turned and started to move. 

More crackling came through the comm. He could picture them on the Tardis, the Doctor babbling at the console, while Kira watched him work his magic. It wasn’t often Jack felt jealous, but right now he envied her position. Safe, by the Doctor’s side, watching the gears in his Time Lord brain crank out answers. 

Jack moved on till he found a boxy cement building, Number 89. The whirr of the machines buzzing all around him were interrupted by a clanking noise of metal-on-metal, like something stuck in a motor, coming from inside the building. Jack steeled himself and stepped through the metal door. The stairs clanged and vibrated under his boots as he walked up and out on a platform, looking over a station full of machinery. Rubber hoses, valves, rusty pipes, and boilers steamed and whooshed. Even through the suit he could feel the air, grimy with soot from the nearby fires and charged with heat and energy. But all the noises blended together and he couldn’t tell where the clanking was originating from.

He was beginning to think he was walking through various stages of Hell--all these fires, explosions, control rooms and machinery. Maybe he deserved it. Maybe he was just going a bit barmy.

“Doctor.” 

The static bursting through his earpiece nearly made Jack jump. “Captain?”

“I’m here in the building.”

“Jack--Solar flares have gone off the charts. They must be interfering with the—“ the line went to static all of a sudden, then picked up again—“and the system’s overheating—“ more static, “a passive cooling system—“ and static, again.

The signal was intermittent, but Jack could piece some of it together. Solar flares could interfere with electrical systems. They might short out the cooling system, or the turbines—causing all kinds of damage. But he needed more information about what to do. “Doctor, you’re cutting out.”

“Jack—you’ve got to—Kira’s looking now.” The signal was still spotty. The Doctor’s voice crackled in and out. “Sorry about—and I’m—with the sonic.” 

Jack took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and hoped Kira was going to have more guidance for him. No wonder all of the disaster recovery plans, all the automatic shut-down procedures had failed at every plant. They may have planned for earthquakes, fire, and war—but massive solar flares preceding a supernova? This was a little on the extreme. Jack found himself humming the bass line for “Under Pressure.” 

Then again, the Doctor did have a flare for drama, which Jack seemed to have picked up over the years. The two of them together—well, they were explosive, weren’t they? He chuckled. 

Finally Kira’s voice came on the line. “Jack, copy me?”

Jack instantly felt a sense of relief. “Kira. What’s going on?” 

“There’s a turbine malfunctioning. It could rip apart and launch a blade right out into the station.” She paused, and his breath caught as he furiously looked around him. Then she was back, still reassuring. “Don’t worry, I’m telling you how to shut it down.”

“Keep talking.”

“All right, Jack. He’s fixing our signal—you can hear me better now, right?” she asked.

In the background was a buzzing—the sonic screwdriver. “Loud and clear.”

“Good. Now, turn to your left. From where you’re standing, you’ll see a big set of pipes on the wall, probably, with a set of red valves on the side and small metal air vents coming off the side?” 

“Yes. Found them.” 

Again, there were valves to turn, things to switch off, buttons to press, gauges to check. His fingers flew under Kira’s instructions. She was thorough. She was confident. It was all a blur to Jack. 

Finally as his fingers stilled, the clanking roar in the station ceased. There was still noise, machinery humming around, but the relative silence was like a migraine suddenly lifted. He hadn’t even been aware how his head was aching until he felt the pressure lift. “It’s stopped,” he told Kira. 

“There’s more,” she said. “I need you to get to the next building. But it’s about a mile away.” 

Jack ran down the steps and back outside. He looked around and found a utility cart nearby. “Got some wheels!” 

“Great, that should make things go faster.”

But come to find out, one of its wheels barely worked. The thing swerved constantly to the right, so Jack had to zig his way past the rubble, then zag past the stored piles of pipes and equipment, and zig-zag-swerve around buildings. He felt like a two-year-old who didn’t quite have command of his legs yet, trying to walk a little plastic car down the driveway. His grandson Steven had one of those.

“Hey, Jack? I think my monitor’s on the fritz,” Kira’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

Jack laughed. He could picture her trying to follow the little green dot on her screen that showed where he was in the plant. “No,” he told her. “It’s this utility cart, wheel’s busted, and I’m swerving all over the place. Just tell me what to look for.”

“Oh, thank God.” The relief in her voice was palpable. “Well, then, head straight—no, the other straight—no, left. Good—no, go right—

“I am—swerving, remember? Can’t go straight —you know me.”

He thought he heard the Doctor chuckle. 

“Just head toward that round building,” Kira said. “You see it? Jack, there’s not much time.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, that’s where I’m going.” Slowly he strong-armed the little vehicle toward the direction he wanted to go. It was taking about three times as long as it should have and probably was barely faster than walking. He kept talking to Kira, to keep their communication link active, and because she was sounding nervous. “The smoke’s thicker here,” he reported. “I must be heading toward that fire that the workers put out before they all fled.” 

There were still foul clouds billowing across the sky. He could breathe, but the suit chafed his thighs. Still he was glad to have a layer of protection between himself and the atmosphere. 

Kira’s voice answered him, muffled but urgent. “Jack—look out for—“ Her words were garbled, and the line dissolved once more to static.

Jack slammed the brakes on the cart and jumped out, spinning around with a look at the sky and the buildings nearby. He heard something behind him—a whoosh and a crash—and he felt a sinking, sick feeling in his gut as he whirled around again. From one of the reactors, a gigantic plume of water was shooting up into the sky. 

“Aw, fuck!” Jack yelled, since he had no idea what the hell else to do. “Kira, there’s a water fountain erupting from the reactor! What is this, Disneyland?”

Kira’s voice came through, and she must have heard him shout. “I’m trying to—damnit!” She cursed on the other end of the line, and he heard her typing into the console. “I’m trying to hack the controls and regulate it remotely.”

“How do I stop it?” 

He guessed the reactor had overheated, and the water on the top tank was shooting out the top. It could flood the reactor, overheating it even more, basically causing meltdown. Was there a central control room? Some valve or condenser apparatus he could adjust? 

“Just stay where you are,” Kira told him. 

There was another boom-crash, and Jack was already rushing blindly in toward the water. There had to be some way to stop it. All or nothing, right? 

“The other way—run the other way!” Kira shouted at him. 

The explosion threw him backward. There was a moment of flying. He was weightless. He was kicking his legs in zero-gravity, floating! He should really be enjoying this far more than he was. Why was he so terrified? And why was there pain? Well, people usually felt sick in zero-gravity for a minute, didn’t they?

The noise of the impact startled him before he felt the thud run through his body. There was a distant cracking noise—but wasn’t that his body, somewhere in his bones? In his spine. In his hip. The awful shattering sensation cut through his thoughts.

The world was red and on fire. Jack struggled against the rising din of unconsciousness clattering in his head. He remembered the water plume—maybe it was still shooting toward the sky. Jack fixed on that image and pictured the water splashing around him, settling around his knees and up toward his hips. He couldn’t breathe. He was drowning in the water. 

But no—it wasn’t quite water. He struggled to understand. He was choking against the smoke, flat on his back in the burning power plant, with pain shooting dreadfully through his broken bones and smashed organs. He was drowning in his own blood. 

There was a rush of air—oh good, he was breathing, after all and he’d imagined it all. But then, oh shit, it was the wind blowing across the cracked helmet that he was hearing. The helmet was leaking air. None of it was real. It was time for everything to go. He was only the timeless, swirling vortex, and he was the foundation of everything in the universe, just particles of dust, yet none of the universe was real.

\---

“I can’t stop it,” Kira said from the console. “It’s going to meltdown. Jack’s signal just faded.” 

The Doctor was focused on rewiring the translation circuits. His hands were full of wires and his screwdriver and a soldering iron, and Kira’s words went right around him. Then he noticed the amperage of the circuit had fallen. Something was wrong. Her words clicked in place. 

He stared at the wires. “Kira—Jack’s helmet, is it broken?” 

“I don’t know, but he’s not moving.” 

“What?” he rushed over to her side to see the monitor. “What!”

“The equipment is going haywire.” 

“What!?” The Doctor’s eyes darted wildly over the monitor. “Where is he?”

“I’m trying to find out,” she said, her voice clouded with frustration. She kept typing. “The green dot showing his location just isn’t here anymore.” 

The Doctor spun away from the console. “Got to think now. Come on, Time Lord mind!” He paced back and forth, pulling his hair. 

She watched him, exasperated. She wasn’t getting anywhere on the screens, and the only thing she could think of was to go physically look for him on the planet’s surface. “Do you have another helmet?” she asked, taking hold of the Doctor’s arm to stop his pacing.

“Shh, Kira, I’m thinking! Me, Time Lord. I’m brilliant, and I promised him. Come on. What am I missing?” He pulled away from her with an impatient jerk, and resumed pacing the floors.

“Doctor, we need to go find him,” Kira said. She turned back to the monitor. “Here’s his last location. We’ll lock on and start looking there.”

The Doctor came up behind her, looking over her shoulder. She shifted out of the way, and he dove in to the console. He squinted and typed, shifting the Tardis into gear. “He couldn’t have got far. Lock and load. Allons-y!” 

He pulled down the rotor. Then the world went sideways, and Kira clung to the railing for dear life. When the Tardis lurched to a halt, she was already rushing for the door. 

“Wait!” the Doctor ran after her. “You can’t go out there!” He’d meant to get a better reading from the controls. 

But she called over her shoulder and kept going. “Watch me! You want Jack back? Come on!”

The Doctor gripped the door. The air out there was too filthy, too dangerous—and the radiation levels were too high. But he couldn’t let her go alone. He ran after her, his lungs filling with smoke. Then they shut down, as his respiratory bypass kicked in. He couldn’t keep his pace and slowed down, but Kira kept running. 

Adrenalin pumped through her veins, and the Doctor watched her go, with a little admiration. She was bold and impetuous, and he hoped her lungs were stronger than his—and that she knew something he didn’t. She was running toward debris on the ground—a red lump that must be Jack. The red suit, thankfully, was hard to miss. She settled by his side, but then she wobbled. She put her head down to his chest, listening for his heart beat.

The Doctor skidded to a halt behind her, kneeling down. “How is he?” 

Jack’s helmet was shattered and his face—but the Doctor couldn’t look. He was too broken, drowned in blood, and his bones shattered. This was too sickening, too familiar, and had been happening far too often, he thought. Jack thought he couldn’t die, but really he was the man who wouldn’t stop dying. Like a scratched, skipping record—like a time loop—a thread of wrongness in the universe. 

The Doctor fought his nausea and reached out for Kira. She wasn’t responding, either. “Kira!” He shook her, and then saw it was too late. She’d passed out. 

He took a breath and let the bypass kick in again. He could already feel the radiation burning his skin cells. He didn’t have much time. Jack wouldn’t be able to breathe this air either, and couldn’t revive without oxygen. He ripped the helmet off Jack’s head, grabbed the screwdriver from his pocket, and tried to melt the shards back together. He used setting 687c, for fusing plastic, which bubbled the plastic into a scar over the face of the helmet.

It only took a minute, and then he carefully cradled Jack’s broken neck in his hands and guided the repaired helmet back over his head. If luck held, it would filter the air enough to let him revive.

But it was Kira that the Doctor had to save immediately. The Doctor jumped over Jack’s frame and lifted her in his arms, trying to carry her toward the Tardis. But he couldn’t move fast without breathing. Recycling the air put him in slow motion, like he was slogging through mud. Although Kira was small, she was a dead weight in his arms. The Doctor was dizzy, and the radiation felt like a million pins being stabbed through his epidermal layers. He fell to his knees, clutching Kira’s body, trying not to let her fall. He eyed the Tardis door. Just three more feet. Just three. Surely he could make it. He tried to get up. 

Then he heard noise behind him—a giant, gasping breath. The Doctor used his last air to call Jack’s name. And then the pins were boring in his eyes, little black points of light, and he was falling over.

The arms that grasped him were strong and warm, pulling him backward to his feet again. “Doctor. Got you.” Jack’s fingers worked at the Doctor’s, loosening his hold on Kira. “One of you at a time,” he murmured. 

The Doctor could never understand how the universe had made this man possible. He turned his face toward Jack’s, imploring him to take Kira inside first, and saw his blue eyes flash with a look that answered him: _No way._

“Just get inside, Doctor. She’s next. You’re going to be all right.” 

The Doctor had no energy left. He leaned back against Jack and tried to move his legs, as Jack eased Kira’s fall to the ground, then pulled the Doctor the three feet back to the Tardis. Jack helped the Doctor up to the railing inside. “Hold on, Doc.” 

The Doctor grasped the cold metal, staring at the grating in front of him, but his eyes could only see snatches of what he’d just seen—Jack’s skull, the blood, Kira’s unconscious face. His slipped from the railing and he dropped to his knees. He gasped for air, letting himself breathe again. It was a relief, but it hurt. His skin still felt charred and burning, and he didn’t think he could see anything. Any minute he expected to breathe out golden light. Regeneration. 

Jack carried Kira back in, cradled in his strong arms. The Doctor saw the swoop of his coat, and the loose strands of Kira’s hair fall to the ground. Jack set her carefully on the floor next to the Doctor. Her face was pale, her eyes closed. She was still unconscious. 

The Doctor was beginning to breathe easier. His skin hurt less. He wasn’t going to regenerate after all. Jack’s large hand closed around the Doctor’s arm. “Now tell me why you’re both outside!”

“She went out after you,” he told Jack. 

Jack gaped at him. “But she knows that I’d revive!”

The Doctor shook his head. “You couldn’t breathe out there either—I covered your face.” He reached out to Jack’s helmet and, with a shaky finger, traced the melted plastic bubbles where he’d fused it together.

Jack’s brow furrowed, “Shit.” He pulled off the helmet, looking at the shards, and then tossed it aside. He bent over Kira, feeling for her pulse. “She’s breathing, heart’s beating, but. Fuck.”

The Doctor’s breath had regulated, but nearly halted at the strange, strangled sound of Jack’s voice. He knelt down to Kira, who was unconscious, and he pulled out his screwdriver and scanned her body. She was alive, but the results weren’t good. Too much radiation. Too much lung damage.

“Well?” Jack waited.

The Doctor took Kira’s other hand, the one that Jack wasn’t holding. “Kira, can you hear me?”

Her breath changed, and it looked like she was trying to move her head. He squeezed her fingers and very faintly, he felt her squeeze back. They didn’t have much time. “Jack,” he said, glancing up. “We have one more trip on this planet. Go to the medbay and get her an oxygen mask. Then get a stun gun.”

“A what?” Jack stared at the Doctor across Kira’s body.

“Weapons store, third corridor, fourth room on the right.” The Doctor looked straight back at him, his fingers still mechanically stroking Kira’s hand.

“You have a weapons store?” Jack’s look was incredulous now—of course, he thought the Doctor refused to have weapons on the Tardis. 

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Just do it!” 

Jack tossed the Doctor a casual salute and turned on his heel, running back out of the console room. 

The Doctor bent back over Kira, trying to blink back tears from his eyes. She might have a bit longer—an hour maybe, but she wasn’t going to make it. And Jack might never trust him again. Either way, he was going to lose both his companions once all this was over. 

He tried to prop Kira’s head into his lap. “You’re going to be fine, Kira,” he murmured. “Just lost some air. You know where I’m going to take you? You’re going to watch that flock of Cremini birds fly around the Lake of Crem. We’re going to save them. Remember the zoo I told you about?” He murmured at her, unsure really if she could hear. “The entire universe, Kira, you’re going to see it all soon.” He talked, if only to keep his thoughts from wandering out to the inevitable. 

Finally Jack returned, stun gun in one hand and oxygen mask in the other. He held them both out awkwardly, and the Doctor reached out for the mask. He wrapped it around Kira’s mouth and nose. “This should filter the air down to pure oxygen and help revive her.” At least for a little while, he thought. 

After a minute, her eyes fluttered open and flickered across his face. The Doctor grinned. “There you are. Thought I’d lost you, but no. Look at you. Strong, healthy.”

She smiled, too weak to speak. 

“We just have one more place to go. I promise you’ll love it,” he told her. He could feel Jack hovering nearby, watching. “Jack’s going to stay with you while I fly,” he added, and then looked up. 

Jack sat down and helped gather Kira up in his arms. The Doctor smiled down at her. “Be right back.” Then he was up and moving again, over to the console. He brought up coordinates for the Lake of Crem. 

“Hold on, Jack!” Again they were rushing across the planet. In another day, the sun would explode and obliterate everything faithful in its orbit—but an hour was all they needed.


	14. Lake of Crem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack struggles with PTSD and realizes the Doctor hasn't told him something crucially important.

The Doctor had regained his strength and carried Kira out onto the planet in his own arms and lay her down in the grass. Jack was relieved to see she seemed to be recovering as well. With colour in her cheeks, she was smiling up into the Doctor’s face, and he hovered over her, watching every movement she made. 

Jack settled down beside them, looking out over the landscape. They were in the caldera of an ancient volcano, high up in the mountains. The air was thin, and the horizon was a red haze of smoke as the sun prepared to set for the last time. 

Otherwise, Jack thought, it was like he’d stepped from war into heaven. Out in front of them was a crystal clear lake, surrounded by scruffly trees and plants, stunted by the altitude. The water reflected the clouds passing over the sky and lapped the shore like a cat cleaning its kittens. 

The silence was so absolute that Jack found it unnerving. All’s well that ends well, he thought. Soon the Doctor and Kira would be travelling again, together, somewhere in time and space he couldn’t follow. Soon he’d be back with Ianto, guiding Torchwood. 

That should make him happy. It didn’t. Jack clutched the tranquilizer gun in his hands, uncertain why he was carrying it at all, and watched as the Doctor propped Kira against himself, cradling her in his arms and leaning her head on his shoulder. 

With his free hand, the Doctor pointed out toward the lake. “There they are! Do you see?”

“The cremini birds!” Kira breathed. She sounded in awe.

Jack looked out to see a flock of purple birds wheeling by the shoreline. They were the size of gulls, flying with their long necks stretched out like cranes, in a shimmering flock that caught the light. 

Their wings reminded him of sparks and explosions. Jack shut his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath, and pushed the air slowly back out again. Get it together, he told himself. He was safe again with his companions, here in the wilderness. But he knew how this worked: the moment you knew you were safe again was the moment you allowed yourself to start panicking. Because the moment you felt safe, was sometimes when you were most in danger. 

The Doctor's voice brought him back again. “See how the blue light comes out?” the Doctor was asking Kira. “And the green tufts. That’s their mating plumage.” 

The Doctor was giving Kira one last look at her dying planet. Jack looked over to them, to the Doctor murmuring in her ear. His fingers grasped her shoulder, and she leaned into his neck. Her hands were somewhere by his hearts. It was too sweet, Jack thought. Something felt wrong to him. He shook it off—it was just this post-trauma melancholy, eating at him. He tried to catch the Doctor's eye. 

“We’re going to save them for you,” the Doctor said, still referring to the birds.

So that was it—the Doctor wanted him to tranquilize the birds, so they could save the species. Jack swallowed, looking down at his stun gun still clutched in his fingers, smooth in his sweaty palm, and then back over to his companions. The Doctor was laying Kira back in the grass, now. He stretched his lanky body out beside her, his long fingers stroking her face, as she blinked up at him. 

Jack half-expected the Doctor would lean over and kiss her, though it seemed unlike him. It wasn’t common for the Doctor to be so intimate with anyone, not like this. Jack felt like he was invading on their privacy. He looked away. 

The birds were still floating, tracing chaotic patterns in the bright horizon, and it did make him feel calmer this time. “They’re beautiful birds," Jack said. "They only live in this lake here, don’t they?”

There was no answer, and he looked over. The Doctor was shaking, his face transfixed on Kira’s. But hers were closed and her cheeks dark and colourless. He stroked her lips again, and then he looked up at Jack. And then Jack understood--the Doctor's eyes were red and pooling over. His jaw trembled but his voice was steady. “Did you bring it?” 

Jack swallowed and tried to will his voice to work. “What?”

The Doctor answered his unasked question. “She stopped breathing 38 seconds ago.” 

Jack felt like someone had punched him in the gut. “I’m sorry.” 

He moved toward the Doctor, who only winced. “Jack.”

Jack pulled away again, cleared his throat, and frowned at the grass. Its lush, plush, blue hue mocked him. “Right here,” he said, lifting the stun gun. 

The Doctor’s jaw dropped. “We’re not fighting a stampede of elephants.”

Jack shrugged. He hadn't known what the Doctor wanted when he was asked to fetch it from the store room. “It’ll work, though?” 

“Yeah,” the Doctor nodded. He looked out to the lake. “Get both sexes so they can breed.”

“Right,” Jack nodded. He looked at Kira again. “I thought she was all right, Doctor—I really thought—” 

“Yeah.” The Doctor was hunched in the broad, brown coat, and stared back down. His face was a mask, barely controlled. His fingers clutched the grass. Jack wanted to go to him--he looked devastated. Jack’s head was finally clear, though. He saw the Doctor had known all along that Kira wouldn't make it. 

So Jack turned away. What the Doctor needed was some privacy. What Jack needed was to run, to walk, to move. And maybe, he needed to shoot something. To control the spark and bang, instead of haunted by the explosions he’d just impossibly lived through. He forced himself to take wide, confident strides down the hill and plow through the tall grass, around the thick trees, and out of the Doctor’s sight. 

Hunting the birds was good fun, compared with traipsing through exploding nuclear plants. He was in charge of the power—first the aim, then the rush and recoil of the weapon, and then, satisfyingly, the squawk and plop of the birds falling. 

The lake was clear and cold. The birds fell one by one. He missed more than he hit—they were swift, and his hands shook—but he didn’t care. He wanted to prolong it. Finally, he walked among the fallen bodies and checked to make sure he had a couple of either sex. He plucked four off the ground and piled them together by a set of boulders. 

The exercise was good, and his head clear again. His breath was coming evenly now. It reminded him a little of hunting back home on the Boe-Shane peninsula, bringing small birds home to his folks. They didn’t need the food, and the birds were hardly worth eating. Once in a while, though, his mother would humour him and roast one for dinner.

Jack laughed at these memories he’d all but forgotten, as he watched the lake. Everything looked clean, and pure, and utterly ridiculous. All this beauty would soon be blown out into the vacuum of space. Yet the Doctor could go back in his Tardis, a hundred years before all this started, and sit down by the lake again. He could meet Kira. Kiss her. Give her children. He never would—there were timelines to protect. 

Jack let enough time go by to be sure he wasn’t going to start reliving those explosions again. Finally he gathered up the drugged birds in his arms and carried them back through the trees and up the hill. The Doctor was sitting in the grass, forehead on his knees. He was still pressed against Kira’s body, their hips touching. But he looked up when he heard the grasses rustling.

Jack held up the birds, as if to prove he’d accomplished the mission.

“Good work, soldier,” the Doctor said.

Jack nodded. He watched as the Doctor leaned over Kira once more and pressed a chaste kiss on her lips. He stroked hair out of her face. Then he pulled himself to his feet. 

“Well,” he said, squaring his shoulders, looking out at the lake once more. 

“Yeah."

The sunset was stunning—the lake reflected the purple light, and salmon and crimson stains were bleeding around the clouds. Neither Jack nor the Doctor were ready to talk or listen. Both of them had too much spinning around in their minds. 

Jack looked down at Kira, trying to memorize her face—her full lips, wide-set eyes, and her mass of purple hair. When he looked up, the Doctor was already walking back to the Tardis.

Jack ran after him, then dropped the birds on the Tardis grating and shut the door. He followed the Doctor up to the console and watched him pull up the maps of the Tardis. He swapped the giant cafeteria that Andross’ crew had used for the zoo facilities that he’d archived. Then they picked up the birds and walked down the Tardis corridors. 

The corridors turned and twisted for what felt like long kilometres before they found the destination. Jack had heard about the zoo facility but never been inside. There wasn’t much to see—just some cages, even some stalls for larger animals. Some were still dirty. There were piles of alien grasses like hay and bags of feed and a faint smell of manure. Otherwise, it was abandoned. 

They left the unconscious birds in a metal cage. The Doctor tossed some feed that looked like corn around the cage, and then locked the cremini birds inside, still sound asleep.

As Jack trailed him back toward the console room, he realized the Doctor hadn’t said another word since leaving Kira behind. Her body would burn on that planet, in the blast of the supernova. Jack followed the Doctor back to the controls and grabbed the railing as he launched them back into the Time Vortex. 

Then, finally, the Doctor glanced at him. His expression was stony but his voice just sounded defeated. “Get some rest. Then I’ll take you home.”

He pushed off the console and walked down the stairs and toward a corridor. Jack took two steps to follow him, but then let him go on alone. There was no indication the Doctor wanted to be followed—he was too quiet, too distant and solemn. 

His coat flapped and disappeared into the corridor, and Jack just stayed, watching the time rotor pulsing in the center of the Tardis. The Doctor hadn’t restored any of the comfortable rooms on the ship. Jack supposed he could make do in one of the refugees’ bunkers, but the thought wasn’t inviting.

The ship was quiet. It was a blessing for a moment, then uncomfortable. Jack looked around the coral struts, the metal gratings, and felt queasy again. His mind flashed with all he’d seen in the nuclear plants—the metal machinery, the pipes blasting water, the flames, the roaring sounds of explosions and shouting. The bodies and the faces of the dead. The sound of his own bones breaking.

He turned away from the console finally, wondering what to do with himself. If he tried to rest, he’d only end up with nightmares. He tried to call to mind the lake, and only saw Kira’s face. But then he raised his eyes and saw the Doctor standing in the corridor, looking at him. 

“Come on, Jack.”

Jack pushed himself off the railing and followed him. When he reached the corridor entrance, the Doctor reached out to grasp Jack’s fingers and guide him down the corridor.


	15. Private Spaces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our traumatized heroes try to recover their equilibrium.

Jack trailed the Doctor down the corridor until they came to the Doctor’s room. The air smelled stale inside, thick with the Doctor’s own musky scent—yet more intensely than the Doctor himself ever smelled. Jack hovered in the doorway. His stomach was still flip-flopping, and he couldn't deal with anything intense, even just a scent in the air.

The room lit up dimly as the Doctor entered. He set his coat over the foot of the bed and turned back to Jack. “Come on, then,” he murmured. “You aren’t as traumatized as all that, Captain.” 

He helped Jack shrug off his coat, and started unbuttoning his shirt. 

Jack cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. Thought maybe you didn’t want to look at me right now. It’s my fault—”

“It’s not. You know that.” The Doctor’s fingers were shaking as he brushed the clothes off Jack’s body as easily as he’d dismissed his words. 

Jack realized his clothing was torn, almost shredded—the fabric nearly disintegrated as it fell to the floor. Jack tried to laugh. “Don’t know why I bother wearing clothes anymore. The universe just wants me undressed.”

The Doctor’s eyes flickered up at him uncertainly. His fingers hesitated at Jack’s waist. Jack realized that what the Doctor needed was someone to share his grief, not someone to try and keep things light. The Doctor was as closed up as his room—but Jack was inside now, in his private space, and he could see right through the Doctor’s thoughts. Even now, the Doctor was still trying to take care of Jack, even when he wasn’t really alright himself. 

“She was brilliant, wasn’t she?” Jack murmured.

“Yeah.” The Doctor’s jaw was set, firm, and his brow furrowed. 

Jack squeezed his shaking hands and reached to help him undress. He cupped the Doctor’s neck in his palm and let the Doctor rest his forehead on Jack’s shoulder. When they’d dropped their clothes to the floor, they simply held each other, skin on skin. They were sweaty and streaked with blood, dirt, and grease. They smelled of smoke and chemicals. But it didn’t matter anymore.

They were just two people who had survived. They felt three hearts beating, fingers clasping fingers. Jack leaned his cheek on the Doctor’s and felt the Doctor tremble against him, breath ghosting on each other’s shoulders. The Doctor was saving him once more. The Tardis dimmed the lights further as they leaned against each other, plum exhausted and grateful. 

Finally the Doctor revived a little, tugging Jack’s hand. They both really needed a shower, and then about five days of sleep. 

\---

Ianto had finished the search for suitable planets hours ago and was puttering around the Hub. The others had gone home. He’d told them Jack was on holiday. With a friend. Returning in 48 hours. He’d promised to be back in 48 hours. 

And because Ianto himself was acting suspicious, the others skittered around him, not asking too many questions. Gwen cast him sidelong looks, Owen just shrugged and made himself busy in the medical bay, and Tosh immersed herself in solving a puzzle of a mysterious box sent through the rift. They probably thought Ianto and Jack had some kind of row—or Jack had swanned off on some project they weren’t allowed to know about. They went home early. 

Even though Ianto didn’t really expect Jack back tonight, he was cleaning up the Hub. He was doing dishes. Filing paperwork. Making fresh coffee. He couldn’t keep his mind from wandering. The Doctor could likely sense every echo and tick of time, yet even if he had the best intentions, Ianto doubted he was reliable enough to meet the deadline. Jack might not even be back for another month or two or six, he thought. 

Maybe, Torchwood had simply made him prejudiced and Ianto just didn’t trust aliens. Though, he was beginning to suspect Jack himself was from a different planet, which meant he was an alien, too. 

When Jack did get back, he might want to sleep. He’d be exhausted. Ianto crawled down the ladder in Jack’s office to his hidey-hole bedroom and fluffed the pillows. He turned on the space heater. 

Then he went upstairs to wait. He paced. He watched the CCTV of the Plass and all its visitors hurrying past with laptop cases and shopping bags, some dressed up from their days at work, or headed for the theatre. 

He drank coffee. He made more fresh coffee. He was rubbish at waiting. And yet it was all he could do: wait for Jack. As long as it took, that was how long he’d wait. 

\-----

Jack trailed two fingertips across the Doctor’s collarbone. They were surrounded by pillows and safety. They’d slept. They were relaxing into the comfort of each other. Jack was always amazed how quiet the Doctor could be when he wasn’t trying to concentrate or impress someone. 

“Remember when we started this?” Jack murmured. “You thought the Time War caused the supernova.”

“I did, didn’t I.” The Doctor looked up at the ceiling, twirling a stray thread from the sheet in his fingers.

“And all along, it was those Harvesters. Parasites of the universe.”

“I suppose you’re right.” The Doctor looked over at him, one eyebrow raised. 

“Doesn’t that make you feel any better?” 

The Doctor shook his head. “I’m still guilty for what I did in the Time War. And I still saved hundreds of people. There’s no good or evil—only, sometimes, we can find balance. The equilibrium of the universe.”

“And in the end, we’re just ephemera, bits of biological processes, strewn back into the chemistry of the universe?” 

“That’s…not how I see it. Anyway, you’re not. You’re a--” but the Doctor broke off, his eyes holding Jack’s. 

Jack ran a hand over the Doctor’s cheek. “You’re a hero.”

The Doctor shifted away. “I’m really not.” 

“All those people you saved would disagree,” Jack said. “And Kira—she was, too.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor swallowed. “She was amazing and brilliant, and she saw right through me.” His face contorted, his eyes brown and expressive, staring somewhere through the ceiling into the universe. “Know what I’m most grateful for?”

“What, Doctor?”

“She brought you back to me.” The Doctor leaned forward, his eyes drifting shut, and his soft lips found Jack’s. 

Jack wrapped an arm around his Doctor’s skinny back, running a finger slowly down his spine as they kissed. And the Tardis dimmed the lights again.


	16. Torchwood Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ianto finally gets a trip to see the stars.

When the Tardis finally whirred and wheezed right in the empty spot on the balcony outside Jack’s office, Ianto was startled. He whirled around, staring at the blue impossibility.

“Torchwood!” the voice called, and then the lanky figure in pinstripes and wild brown hair whirled around the corner. The Time Lord was grinning at him, lounging against the railing of the balcony in his trainers and suit. “Brilliant! Hello again, Ianto Jones.”

Jack stepped out behind the Doctor and looked out over the balcony, scanning the room. He lit up when he saw Ianto. “Hey honey, I’m home!” He rushed down the stairs. 

“Welcome back,” Ianto said, surprised when Jack grabbed him up in a tight hug. Ianto’s arms closed around the fresh shirt on Jack’s back, and he noticed it wasn’t actually Jack’s shirt. He heard the Doctor laughing from above them. 

Jack pulled away, then leaned forward again, kissing Ianto’s lips with a sweep of his tongue. Ianto opened his mouth and let him, feeling a touch giddy that Jack would do this in front of his Doctor. 

“Good to see you, sir,” mumbled Ianto as Jack pulled away.

“It’s only been 48 hours for you–-right?” Jack asked. 

“Yes. You’re on time.” Ianto glanced upstairs. “Doctor’s a good influence on you, sir.”

“Brilliant!” The Doctor was clattering down the steps now. “It’s been a bit longer for us, but mission accomplished, and I’ve brought Jack home to you–-on time.” He grinned with a hint of pride, which seemed a bit more endearing than Ianto thought it should be.

“None the worse for wear, I see,” Ianto said, looking Jack over and finding not a scratch.

“You should see my clothes,” Jack chuckled, but his grin fell away as the Doctor shot him a look. 

Ianto felt Jack’s fingers tense imperceptibly against his arm. The Doctor kept a polite distance, but he and Jack were in synch, in the way of soldiers that had fought side by side, or lovers who knew each other intimately. 

“You’re wearing the Doctor’s shirt then?” Ianto let his fingers slide down Jack’s arm and started to pull away, but Jack clasped his hand, holding him in place. 

“So,” Jack said. “Found any good planets out there?”

“Several candidates, actually. In the regions you suggested–-the Ozarnai galaxies, the Azerbane cluster.” 

The Doctor nodded. “Quite right.”

Ianto shifted his hand from Jack’s and moved toward the computer. “Do you want some coffee first?” he offered. “I just made a fresh pot.” Again he felt his cheeks flush, as if this simple gesture would reveal how nervously he’d been waiting.

Jack was trying to hide a little smile. “In a bit, Ianto. We just had breakfast, actually.”

“Breakfast, then come back at night? You’ll wind up with jet lag,” he tried to smile.

Jack raised an eyebrow, and Ianto turned back to the computer. “Well, I tagged each planet in the Tardis’ system, so you should be able to find the coordinates easily.” 

He’d had the windows loaded and waiting on his desktop for hours, and now he pulled them up, scrolling through and describing why each planet was suitable. The Doctor and Jack crowded over his shoulders, following along. He could feel their warmth and energy behind him as he talked. Once in a while, one of them commented:

Jack: “Oh the Great Exponent of Picassia Squared, I’ve been there once actually. The people that lived there–-very cubist, very kinky.” 

“They have a love affair with mathematical equations–-formed their society around it,” said the Doctor. “Shame they don’t quite understand them, or else their society might not have collapsed.”

“Oh, is it gone now? That’s a shame.”

“Well, we are looking at abandonments,” Ianto broke in. “Let’s move on–-"

And then there was–-

“You know, I don’t think the Caves of Aubergalia are all that inviting,” Jack said. “You know, the sky there’s actually orange?” 

“Rather irritating, actually. They should be aubergine, you know. Love a good aubergine.”

“You just like the word.”

“What’s wrong with aubergine? Beautiful word. Rolls right off the tongue. Aaauubeergieeene.”

“That’s not the only thing that---“

“Stop it!” the Doctor was smiling. “Moving on, what do you have next? Ah, the Giftopolis of Giraphonia! I once brought a giraffe there--they didn’t appreciate the joke. Accidentally caused a revolt.”

“No! You, Doctor?” Jack mocked. “I take it there was running.”

“Oh, yes. Apparently I wasn’t the only one-–there’s a wild population of giraffes running amok now.”

“That wasn’t in the files,” Ianto said, making a comment in the notes, “Herd of wild giraffes.”

“No, no,” the Doctor said. “It’s a tower. A tower of giraffes, they’re called.”

Through these little glimpses, the files Ianto had been poring over began to come alive, and he started to think of them as actual places, not just empty rocks. There was a history and culture in the abandoned stones and sites that seemed an endless font of amusement for Jack and his Doctor. Ianto wasn’t sure whether to stay annoyed or try to be amused by their interaction. Eventually they got through the files. When he turned around, he almost expected to find Jack and his Doctor leaning on each other or their hands clasped, but they weren’t really touching at all. Ianto slid away and readied the paper files he’d assembled. 

The Doctor sidled in to Ianto’s place at the computer and squinted at the screen, looking through the planets again and then marking something in the database. “Well,” he shrugged. “I’ll send the files and let them choose. It will be their planet, after all.”

Jack chuckled. “Right. Good call.”

“I’m just the transport,” the Doctor added. “One last migratory journey-via-Tardis. As far as most of them know, it’s just a cruise ship.” He winked at them, then turned and clapped Ianto on the back. “Good job, Ianto. I guess I owe Torchwood some thanks after all.”

“We'll win you over yet, like it or not,” Jack said.

“What do you say, Ianto Jones?” The Doctor’s bright eyes were suddenly on him, his eyebrows dancing with amusement. “Want to watch a supernova? Watch a sun explode? It’s going to be amazing.”

Ianto gaped at him. “Absolutely, sir.”

Jack looked just as surprised, but the Doctor just turned to walk back upstairs. “Well then. Allons-y! We left just enough time to catch the magic-–from a safe distance, of course.” 

They followed the Doctor back into the hyper-spatial blue box and sailed off into the future. 

\-----

It still felt like night time in the Tardis, Ianto thought, even if Jack was on morning time. Then again, the sun they were watching was neither rising nor setting. It was distant right now, just a brief point of light out the window. 

The Doctor had brought them to this room full of curving walls and windows, with pillows scattered on the floor. He prepared a pot of some exotic, alien tea. “Gift from a fortune-teller on Chai-Te 13,” he explained. “They had some trouble with a fleet of Sontarans, and then I showed up. One word, and the space ships fled. And I wasn’t even speaking to the Sontarans. I just said hello to the priestess!” 

Ianto wasn’t really following the story, but he was mesmerized by the Doctor’s little freckles glinting over his skin in the dim light. While Jack poured tea, the Doctor flopped down with a banana and a grin. Then Jack settled himself between them, handing a mug to Ianto. The temperature was perfect and the flavour like a spiced red tea-–usually too mild for Ianto’s tastes, but he needed something calming after all that coffee and his cleaning frenzy. Jack draped an arm over him and his breath ghosted against Ianto’s neck. 

“So many cultures throughout time are fascinated by fortune-telling,” the Doctor was saying. “And even human mystics have realized that death isn’t always final. In Tarot, the card of Death means no such thing-–only change.”

Jack hummed in a half-hearted way at the Doctor’s monologue, encouraging him. 

“So what we’re watching isn’t just the obliteration of planets, of Slavinia and Vegalouise,” he continued. “It’s not the loss of the cities and lakes, or the birds and people. It’s also the birth of an entire nebula and another series of planets.”

Jack reached out a hand toward the Doctor. “And she’s in the center of it all.”

“Oh yes,” the Doctor said, grasping Jack’s fingers. “Kira Jenson. At the heart of the planet.”

“And Analika,” said Jack. “Another hero.”

“Analika,” the Doctor repeated, as if testing the name on his tongue. 

“She guided me in one of the stations.”

“Right. Good. Analika and Kira.” 

Ianto shifted to watch them stare at each other. Jack was still and there was something too solemn in the Doctor’s eyes. Then the Doctor shifted, prattling on, his gaze once more transfixed by the view. “There will be new planets. Granted, they’ll take a million years to form. But in the meantime! From all over this galaxy and the next, people will travel to see the nebula created in the death of this star. It’s going to be spectacular. And it all starts right here, as the atoms begin to superheat–-” 

And he was off, chattering about what exactly happened as all the brilliant points of light in the star pulsed and burst across the galaxy. Ianto lost the thread of his thoughts, but he felt content and warm right down to his bones as he leaned against Jack. He wished Tosh and Owen could be here. Even Owen would be awed by the view, and Tosh would probably fall a little in love with the Doctor and try to keep up with his technical gibberish. 

Then the star began to explode, and the entire sky lit up in a white-hot flare, stilling all their separate thoughts and their tongues. When the light faded, minutes later, the sky was shifting in all colours–-fuchsia, blue-violet, green, crimson, and flares of yellows. Even the Doctor fell silent at the view and scooted closer to lean against Jack, slightly. They were shoulder to shoulder.

“I thought this part could last for weeks,” Jack murmured, as the colours flickered in front of them.

“I, uh, may have sped it all up a bit,” the Doctor answered. “Like watching grass grow, really.”

“You did what?” Jack shifted his weight to look over at the Doctor. “You can do that?” The tension in his shoulders disturbed Ianto, who sat up. 

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Time Lord. The Tardis is still moving through time.”

Jack sighed with a hint of frustration. “But what about Andross and the others waiting for us?”

“They needed time,” the Doctor huffed. “They’ll have to convene committees, and pick a planet.”

Jack nodded. 

“They’ll be all right for a week or two.” The Doctor reached a tentative arm around Jack’s shoulder, and gently pulled him back down against the pillows. They settled in together. Ianto sat nearby, stiff and awkward, until Jack finally reached out and pulled him down into the pile too. And there they rested for some indefinite amount of time, breathing together and staring out at the swirling mysteries of the universe.


	17. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor takes the refugees on their final journey to a new home, and does it in style. This penultimate chapter's just a little fluff.

Andross welcomed the Doctor with a wave and a shout as he stepped out of the Tardis. “Doctor!" He offered a hearty handshake, then looked over the Doctor's shoulder. “And Jack? Kira? Isn’t she with you?”

The Doctor scratched his neck uncomfortably, and Andross face fell, looking dark. “If you believe in a heaven, or an afterlife, then you know she’s safe with her husband and children there,” the Doctor offered. “And Jack’s safe at home.”

Andross looked disappointed but not surprised. “I'm a scientific man, Doctor. What should I believe now?”

The Doctor looked out over the crowd of people that Kira had helped save. He’d filled an arena the size of a football field with the refugees, all waiting to be brought to a new home. “That she was a hero in the end,” he said. “We all owe her our lives.”

“That’s fitting.” Andross was silent for a moment. “You look like you'll mourn her as much as I will.”

The Doctor nodded, and for a moment he let his own grief show on his face. “Yeah.” Then he turned around again. “Is everyone ready? Prepared? Did you tell them where they’re going?”

The Doctor had sent all the files and gave Andross a week to assemble a committee and decide. They’d chosen well–-the planet Settiapolis in the Ozernai galaxy, featuring hanging rock formations and caverns hewn into mountains, yellow valleys of edible fungi, forests of purple blooming trees, and rivers abundant with marine life. But without consensus, the Doctor knew relocation would not go smoothly for Andross’ people. 

But Andross nodded. “The decision was made by committee–-the last vestiges of our government.”

The Doctor cocked an eyebrow. “And you?”

“I’m only the messenger, Doctor,” Andross smiled back, shaking his head. “I know machinery better than people. But I command a few officers, and they’ll keep the peace on your ship.”

“Good, quite good!” the Doctor answered. 

“Come-–if you’re ready, let’s start boarding before there’s another rebellion to quell.” Andross’ fluffy eyebrows danced in amusement, and he motioned forward several men who were dressed in similar uniform. The faces looked familiar, probably Andross’ crew from the nuclear station, thought the Doctor. 

“The Tardis is ready,” he told them. He led Andross and crew in to a new room he’d designed for the trip. It looked like an old theatre, with painted walls and a huge window screen showing the view. For the citizens, there were red velvet seats and little bags of a treat like popped corn from their home planet. 

Of course, to accommodate everyone, the Doctor had needed to build several amphitheatres like this, which had taken some tinkering. But he’d enjoyed the quiet work and was looking forward to comfortably seating so many people–-this was what the Tardis was designed for, in a way, even though he’d grown accustomed to having it all to himself. 

In fact it would only take a minute to feed the coordinates into the Tardis’ system, pull the lever, and land on the planet. But if this was their final goodbye to their planet, and their journey to a new home, so he thought he might as well make it a trip they’d remember in a good light. So he watched them all file on board, guided by Andross’ men, and he flew them slowly past the nebula that remained of their solar system. He told them that in millions of years there would be new planets, new people. And for now, it was a beautiful sight, with so many colours swirling about in the gases and dust. Finally he flew them in a slow journey toward their new planet so they could get a good look at it from space before they landed. They looked eagerly on its gorgeous blue seas, its yellow valleys and purple forests, and all the life that awaited them. Many of them were crying, while the children looked on awe-struck. 

He even gave them a slideshow of everything he knew of the former inhabitants of the little caves and caverns they’d found on the planet. Of course, Andross and their committee had already read through the files, but the Doctor thought each of the inhabitants should know a little something about their new home.  
He stood in the doorway of the Tardis as the people filed off, gathering around an ancient, dilapidated building where they would find shelter as they tried to rebuild their civilization. 

Andross himself was the last one off the Tardis, and he held out a hand. “Thank you Doctor,” he said, his voice cracking. “You’ll be remembered in stories for a long time to come. And Kira and Jack, too, will be remembered as heroes of our people.” 

"These people owe their lives to you as well," said the Doctor. "Just a word of advice though-–no nuclear plants, this time?” He cocked an eyebrow with the suggestion.

Andross nodded. “We'll do better.”

The Doctor grinned. “Good man. Go be brilliant.”

“Visit anytime.” Andross saluted him, and the Doctor watched as he turned and walked down through the path the people had already trampled in the grass, toward the settlement. There were birds flying around, and some kind of deer-like creatures that seemed tame enough, and he knew they’d have no trouble finding food and surviving here. It might even be quiet and idyllic, for a little while-–until they reinvented civilization and luxury. 

The Doctor’s mouth tweaked up in a little smile. The cycle of life and death was inevitable, he thought. He turned back to the Tardis and set his coat down inside. He was alone again with his thoughts and quiet. The Tardis lights felt a little dimmer. He breathed deeply, already considering the next adventure.But suddenly a horrid shriek cut through the silence, and the Doctor looked around in shock. “What? What!” He swivelled the monitor around to see blood and feathers flying.

“What!?”


	18. Epilogue: Feathers Flying in Outer Bolivia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor needs a little more help from his Captain and Ianto to wrestle some angry birds. 
> 
> If you've read all the way through, please leave me a little comment to let me know what you think. Thanks!

Ianto was swirling amber Scotch around his glass and enjoying the quiet of the Hub and the smell of Jack beside him, when he heard the uneasy wheeze of the Tardis outside Jack’s office. He looked up to see his surprise mirrored in Jack’s eyes. Jack's face tensed, and he downed the rest of the Scotch from his own glass. He stood up, and Ianto followed him out of his office to the balcony. They peered over to see the Doctor beneath, looking cheerful and leaning against the blue box. 

“Captain? Fancy a trip to the zoo?” he called up to them, cheerfully.

“The zoo?” Ianto asked. 

“Right!” Jack said. “A pair of rare Cremini birds to introduce?”

“That's right,” said the Doctor. “A few old friends for you to meet, as well. Some mighty handsome birds,” he winked. “The Frug of Old Froog Finn. The Torque of Troyon Two.”

“The what?” said Ianto.

“The who?” added Jack.

“I've saved a few creatures in my time, and they're all housed in the Great Zoo of Outer Bolivia.” 

“I don’t suppose he means the Plurinational State of Bolivia in central America, bordering Brazil?” Ianto asked. 

Jack shook his head. “Not Earth, no.”

“I heard you were good at wrestling pteranadons,” the Doctor said, cocking an eyebrow at Ianto. 

“I might have told him about Myfanwy,” Jack murmured, his lips curling up into a smile. 

“I lured Myfanwy with some chocolate-–not very successfully,” Ianto told the Doctor. His feet were already moving, hurrying him down the stairs toward the Time Lord, before he realized it. He felt Jack’s hand on his back, and they followed the Doctor into the Tardis. 

“Well, you see,” the Doctor explained, already at the console, “I have some birds that have just woken up from a nap.”

“Nap?” Jack said. “I stunned them.”

“Right,” said the Doctor, running a hand across his neck “Now, they're fuming. Raging, rather. Well, they're quite angry actually. I was hoping one of you might be able to--”

“Well, he can't die,” Ianto pointed at Jack. 

“I chased them down in the first place,” Jack said, swaggering up toward the console. “What, the great Oncoming Storm can't handle a few one-of-a-kind, gentle Cremini birds?”

“Mock me if you like,” said the Doctor, his arms crossed. “But I don't recommend mocking them, at least to their faces.” And he swung the Tardis monitor around. 

All Ianto saw on screen were some bright green feathers floating about—the birds themselves were only smears of movement as they flew around in front of the camera. “They're either mating or fighting,” Ianto observed. “I don’t want to know which.”

“Still have that stun-gun?” Jack said to the Doctor.

“Oh yes!” The Doctor pulled the overly large tranquilizer out from under the console and held it up awkwardly. “Ready?”

“Ready, sir!” Ianto answered.

“Give me that.” Jack grabbed the gun from the Doctor’s hands. “One day, I’ll teach you to use this thing properly.”

“Promises, promises.” With a bright and broad smile, the Doctor turned on his heel and together the trio marched down the corridor. "Now, Jack, are you drunk? You seem a little wobbly on your feet."

"Might be," Jack answered. "That a problem?"

"Well, only if it impairs your hunting."

Ianto giggled, and Jack shot him a look. "Oh I do my best hunting after a few glasses of Scotch," Jack purred.

"Stop it!" 

"He does," Ianto said, completely unnecessarily.

"You're welcome to join us sometime," Jack added.

"Well! Here we are," the Doctor said, sounding relieved, as he pushed open a door.

Seventeen minutes, sixteen seconds, and much squawking later–-from the men as much as from the birds–-they emerged triumphant. However, they were all covered in small scratches, little scabbing lines of blood on their arms and faces, and bird crap dotting their shirts. 

“Let's get some coffee before we head to this zoo,” Ianto suggested. "Following a shower."

“Not a bad plan,” Jack agreed. Then he sneezed.

“The med-bay should have some ointment too,” suggested the Doctor. “Look at you both!”

“You hardly escaped unscathed,” Jack pointed out. The back of the Doctor’s suit was a mess of feathers, and Jack picked white down out of his hair.

“Fighting is hardly my style.” The Doctor ruffled his hair and tried brushing his jacket sleeves clean, but only managed to smear the feathers and bird shit around further. 

“You can save planets from aliens, mechanical people, bombs, and nuclear meltdown, but you can't handle some fancy chickens?” Jack mocked him.

“Well,” the Doctor answered, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his hands. “Fulfilling a woman's dying wish is hardly worth it if it's easy.”

“I prefer the simple wishes myself,” Jack answered. “Give my love to my husband, send some money for my children. But you were never one to go for traditional women, were you, Doctor?”

“Not one for tradition, me.” the Doctor arched an eyebrow. 

“You could stay with us, you know, when this is all over,” Jack offered. “No need to wrestle the stars and chickens of the universe all on your own.”

“I’m not one for taking orders, or doing domestic,” shrugged the Doctor. He grimaced, wadded up the handkerchief, and stuffed it in a pocket. 

“Torchwood hardly counts as domestic," protested Jack. "There’s plenty of running, and we have lots of alien artefacts you could repair. ”

“He’s more likely to break them,” Ianto muttered.

“Right.” The Doctor stopped in his tracks, so that Ianto nearly bumped into him. He turned to Jack, reaching for his arm. Jack looked startled, but the Doctor just pulled something from his coat and buzzed his wristwatch. “I owe you a boost, don’t I?”

Jack nodded down at his now-repaired vortex manipulator. “Saved my life, this thing did.” He smiled, looking in the Doctor’s eyes. “Thanks.”

“Thought so,” the Doctor’s voice was soft, but he winked. Then he turned around again, letting Jack’s arm fall back to his side. “Come on then. Ianto. Captain. Your ticket’s valid for one trip to the zoo. Allons-y!” 

Jack chuckled, wrapped an arm around Ianto, and they let the Doctor lead them down the corridor.


End file.
